IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iec/inveco/v27y2003i3p593-614.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Equivalence scales in tax and transfer policies

Author

Abstract

Income distribution and poverty measurement require weighting the impact of both economies of scale and the different needs of each household member. Different models of equivalence scales have been defined. Equivalence scales are also present in many tax and benefit programs. This paper reviews the equivalence scales implicit in personal income tax in Spain. We identify the adjustments contained in the new income tax and highlight the differences with those used in other social programs and the scales normally used to study poverty. An empirical analysis of poverty rates for different kinds of households is carried out using both these implicit scales as well as conventional equivalence scales. The results illustrate that economies of scale are taken into account to a lesser extent in income tax legislation than in income distribution analysis. (Copyright: Fundación SEPI)

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Ayala & Rosa Martínez & Jesús Ruiz Huerta, 2003. "Equivalence scales in tax and transfer policies," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 27(3), pages 593-614, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:iec:inveco:v:27:y:2003:i:3:p:593-614
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.fundacionsepi.es/investigacion/revistas/paperArchive/Sep2003/v27i3a6.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banks, James & Johnson, Paul, 1994. "Equivalence Scale Relativities Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 883-890, July.
    2. Cowell, Frank & Mercader-Prats, Magda, 1999. "Equivalence scales and inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2190, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Timothy Smeeding & Gunther Schmaus & Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using the LIS Database," LIS Working papers 17, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. Udo Ebert & Peter J. Lambert, 2004. "Horizontal Equity and Progression When Equivalence Scales Are Not Constant," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(4), pages 426-440, July.
    5. J. L. Nicholson, 1976. "Appraisal Of Different Methods Of Estimating Equivalence Scales And Their Results," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 22(1), pages 1-11, March.
    6. Jean‐Yves Duclos & Magda Mercader‐Prats, 1999. "Household Needs And Poverty: With Application To Spain And The U.K," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(1), pages 77-98, March.
    7. Pollak, Robert A & Wales, Terence J, 1979. "Welfare Comparisons and Equivalence Scales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 216-221, May.
    8. repec:bla:revinw:v:39:y:1993:i:4:p:337-56 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. A. B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon, 1982. "The Comparison of Multi-Dimensioned Distributions of Economic Status," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(2), pages 183-201.
    10. Jacques van der Gaag & Eugene Smolensky, 1982. "True Household Equivalence Scales And Characteristics Of The Poor In The United States," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 28(1), pages 17-28, March.
    11. van Praag, Bernard M. S., 1991. "Ordinal and cardinal utility : An integration of the two dimensions of the welfare concept," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 69-89, October.
    12. Jenkins,Stephen P. & Kapteyn,Arie & Praag,Bernard M. S. van (ed.), 1998. "The Distribution of Welfare and Household Production," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521623025, January.
    13. Deaton, Angus S & Ruiz-Castillo, Javier & Thomas, Duncan, 1989. "The Influence of Household Composition on Household Expenditure Patterns: Theory and Spanish Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(1), pages 179-200, February.
    14. Blundell,R. W. & Preston,Ian & Walker,Ian (ed.), 1994. "The Measurement of Household Welfare," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521451956, January.
    15. Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater & Guenther Schmaus & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well‐Being, Inequality, And Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using The Luxembourg Income Study (Lis) Database," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 34(2), pages 115-142, June.
    16. Bruce Bradbury, 1988. "Family Size Equivalence Scales and Survey Evaluation of Income and Well-Being," Discussion Papers 005, University of New South Wales, Social Policy Research Centre.
    17. Jenkins, Stephen P & Cowell, Frank A, 1994. "Parametric Equivalence Scales and Scale Relativities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 891-900, July.
    18. Lewbel, Arthur, 1989. "Household equivalence scales and welfare comparisons," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 377-391, August.
    19. repec:bla:revinw:v:34:y:1988:i:2:p:115-42 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juan Prieto-Rodríguez & Víctor Fernández-Blanco, 2006. "Optimal pricing and grant policies for museums," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 30(3), pages 169-181, December.
    2. Juan Prieto-Rodríguez & Rafael Salas & Santiago Álvarez-García, "undated". "The Evolution Of Income Inequality In The European Union," Working Papers 10-02 Classification-JEL , Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    3. Xisco Oliver Rullán & Amedeo Spadaro, 2004. "Are Spanish governments really averse to inequality? a normative analysis using the 1999 Spanish tax reform," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 28(3), pages 551-566, September.

    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. Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2004. "Migration, poverty, and housing in Honduras," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 31(1 Year 20), pages 5-20, June.
    2. Yadira Diaz, 2015. "Differences in needs and multidimensional deprivation measurement," Working Papers 387, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. John Creedy & Cath Sleeman, 2005. "Adult equivalence scales, inequality and poverty," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 51-81.
    4. Sunil Kumar & Renuka Mahadevan, 2008. "Construction of An Adult Equivalence Index to Measure Intra-household Inequality and Poverty: Case Study," Discussion Papers Series 363, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    5. Martin Biewen & Andos Juhasz, 2017. "Direct Estimation of Equivalence Scales and More Evidence on Independence of Base," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(5), pages 875-905, October.
    6. Mysikova, Martina & Zelinsky, Tomas, 2019. "On the Measurement of the Income Poverty Rate: the Equivalence Scale across Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 99(4), pages 383-397.
    7. Christian Dudel & Jan Marvin Garbuszus & Julian Schmied, 2021. "Assessing differences in household needs: a comparison of approaches for the estimation of equivalence scales using German expenditure data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1629-1659, April.
    8. Bruce Bradbury, 2003. "The welfare interpretation of consumer equivalence scales," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(7), pages 770-787, July.
    9. Pogorelskiy, Kirill & Seidl, Christian & Traub, Stefan, 2010. "Tax progression: International and intertemporal comparison using LIS data," Economics Working Papers 2010-08, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    10. Pashardes, Panos, 1995. "Equivalence scales in a rank-3 demand system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 143-158, September.
    11. Regan, Mark & Kakoulidou, Theano, 2022. "How important are the unit of analysis and equivalence scales when measuring income poverty and inequality? Evidence from Ireland," Papers WP721, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. John Creedy & Catherine Sleeman, 2004. "Adult Equivalence Scales, Inequality and Poverty in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/21, New Zealand Treasury.
    13. Kuklys, W. & Robeyns, I., 2004. "Sen’s Capability Approach to Welfare Economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0415, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    14. Melanie Borah & Carina Keldenich & Andreas Knabe, 2019. "Reference Income Effects in the Determination of Equivalence Scales Using Income Satisfaction Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 736-770, December.
    15. Anthony Shorrocks, 2004. "Inequality and welfare evaluation of heterogeneous income distributions," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(3), pages 193-218, July.
    16. Hillringhaus, Tilman & Peichl, Andreas, 2010. "Die Messung von Armut unter Berücksichtigung regional divergierender Lebenshaltungskosten und öffentlicher Leistungen," IZA Discussion Papers 5344, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Masato Okamoto, 2012. "The Relationship between the Equivalence Scale and the Inequality Index and its Impact on the Measurement of Income Inequality," LIS Working papers 575, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    18. Nancy Folbre & Marta Murray-Close & Jooyeoun Suh, 2018. "Equivalence scales for extended income in the U.S," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 189-227, June.
    19. repec:phd:pjdevt:jpd_1992_vol__xix_no__1-c is not listed on IDEAS
    20. John Creedy & Rosanna Scutella, 2003. "The Role of the Unit of Analysis in Tax Policy Reform Evaluations," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n28, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    21. Karina Doorley & Luke Duggan & Theano Kakoulidou & Barra Roantree, 2024. "Equivalisation (once again)," Trinity Economics Papers tep0124, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Equivalence scales; personal income tax; poverty.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

    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:iec:inveco:v:27:y:2003:i:3:p:593-614. 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: Isabel Sánchez-Seco (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.fundacionsepi.es/ .

    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.