IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tul/wpaper/1315.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring Impoverishment: An Overlooked Dimension of Fiscal Incidence

Author

Listed:
  • Sean Higgins

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

  • Nora Lustig

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

Abstract

The effect of taxes and benefits on the poor is usually measured using standard poverty and inequality indicators, stochastic dominance tests, and measures of progressivity and horizontal inequity. However, these measures can fail to capture an important aspect: that some of the poor are made poorer (or some of the non-poor made poor) by the tax-benefit system. We call this impoverishment and formally establish the relationships between impoverishment, stochastic dominance tests, horizontal inequity, and progressivity measures. The directional mobility literature provides a useful framework to measure impoverishment. We propose using a transition matrix and income loss matrix, and establish a mobility dominance criterion to compare alternate tax-benefit systems. We illustrate with data from Brazil.

Suggested Citation

  • Sean Higgins & Nora Lustig, 2013. "Measuring Impoverishment: An Overlooked Dimension of Fiscal Incidence," Working Papers 1315, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1315
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1315.pdf
    File Function: Second Version, September 2013
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luis López-Calva & Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez, 2014. "A vulnerability approach to the definition of the middle class," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(1), pages 23-47, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alejandro de la Fuente & Eduardo Ortiz-Juárez & Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán, 2018. "Living on the edge: vulnerability to poverty and public transfers in Mexico," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 10-27, January.
    2. Nora Lustig & Florencia Amábile & Marisa Bucheli & George Gray Molina & Sean Higgins & Miguel Jaramillo & Wilson Jiménez Pozo & Veronica Paz Arauco & Claudiney Pereira & Carola Pessino & Máximo Rossi , 2014. "El impacto del sistema tributario y del gasto social sobre la desigualdad y la pobreza en Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, México, Perú y Uruguay: Un panorama general," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1313S, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    3. Leonardo Lucchetti & Andrés Castañeda & Santiago Garriga & Leonardo Gasparini & Daniel Valderrama, 2018. "How Sensitive Is Regional Poverty Measurement in Latin America to the Value of the Poverty Line?," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2018), pages 33-58, November.
    4. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice A. Asongu & Julio Mukendi Kayembe, 2016. "Middle Class in Africa: Determinants and Consequences," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 527-549, October.
    5. Nora Lustig, 2017. "Fiscal Policy, Income Redistribution and Poverty Reduction in Low and Middle Income Countries," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 54, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    6. Nestor Gandelam & Virginia Robano, 2014. "Intergenerational Mobility and Entrepreneurship in Uruguay," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 51(2), pages 195-226, November.
    7. Aparicio, Sebastian & Audretsch, David & Noguera, Maria & Urbano, David, 2022. "Can female entrepreneurs boost social mobility in developing countries? An institutional analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Alberto Batinti & Joan Costa‐Font, 2020. "Do economic recessions “squeeze the middle class”?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 335-355, November.
    9. Eggimann, Andres & Kendzia, Michael Jan, 2022. "Rise of the Indian Middle Class and Its Impact on the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 15410, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Jaime Lara Lara & Fabian Mendez-Ramos, 2021. "Poverty vulnerability: The role of poverty lines in the post-pandemic era," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(4), pages 2690-2696.
    11. Raj M. Desai & Nita Rudra, 2016. "Trade, poverty, and social protection in developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-139, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Nora Lustig & Florencia Amábile & Marisa Bucheli & George Gray Molina & Sean Higgins & Miguel Jaramillo & Wilson Jiménez Pozo & Veronica Paz Arauco & Claudiney Pereira & Carola Pessino & Máximo Rossi , 2014. "El impacto del sistema tributario y del gasto social sobre la desigualdad y la pobreza en Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, México, Perú y Uruguay: Un panorama general," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 13S, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    13. Ravallion, Martin, 2012. "Benchmarking global poverty reduction," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6205, The World Bank.
    14. Nora Lustig, 2016. "El Impacto del Sistema Tributario y el Gasto Social en la Distribucion del Ingreso y la Pobreza en America Latina: Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatema," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 37, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    15. Oscar Barriga Cabanillas & Maria Ana Lugo & Carlos Rodríguez-Castelan & Hannah Nielsen & Maria Pia Zanetti, 2015. "Is Uruguay More Resilient This Time? Distributional Impacts of a Crisis Similar to the 2001–02 Argentine Crisis," Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(4), pages 64-90, June.
    16. Joaquín Prieto, 2022. "A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Economic Insecurity: The Case of Chile," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 823-855, September.
    17. Castaneda Aguilar,Raul Andres & Gasparini,Leonardo Carlos & Garriga,Santiago & Lucchetti,Leonardo Ramiro & Valderrama Gonzalez,Daniel, 2016. "Measuring poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean : methodological considerations when estimating an empirical regional poverty line," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7621, The World Bank.
    18. Evans Tindana Awuni & Daniele Malerba & Babette Never, 2023. "Understanding Vulnerability to Poverty, COVID-19’s Effects, and Implications for Social Protection: Insights from Ghana," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 23(3), pages 246-274, July.
    19. Cummins, Neil, 2021. "Where Is the Middle Class? Evidence from 60 Million English Death and Probate Records, 1892–1992," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 359-404, June.
    20. Robles, Adrian & Robles, Marcos, 2016. "Changes in Welfare with a Heterogeneous Workforce: The Case of Peru," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7507, Inter-American Development Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    stochastic dominance; poverty; fiscal incidence; mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kerui Geng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detulus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.