IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v3y1985i2p199-213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distributional Impacts of Government Policies in Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • R E Leu
  • R L Frey

Abstract

This paper is a summary of the major findings of a large research project on the distributional impacts of government policies in Switzerland. First, the budget incidence of the entire public sector, including the social security system, is presented. The results indicate a substantial redistribution from upper-income to lower-income classes. The effect is largely due to public spending rather than to taxation. Second, the distributional impacts of public policy in selected policy areas—transportation, social security, agriculture, and health—are investigated. Redistribution is pro the poor for transportation and health, and pro the rich for agriculture. A mixed picture is found for social security. Within groups of the same marital status or sex, redistribution is pro the poor. Between these groups, it is pro the rich. Third, the distributional impacts of changes in selected macroeconomic variables are analyzed. The major conclusion is that macroeconomic growth policies, if successful, lead to a reduced equality of income distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • R E Leu & R L Frey, 1985. "Distributional Impacts of Government Policies in Switzerland," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 3(2), pages 199-213, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:3:y:1985:i:2:p:199-213
    DOI: 10.1068/c030199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c030199
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c030199?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William D. Nordhaus & James Tobin, 1973. "Is Growth Obsolete?," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Economic and Social Performance, pages 509-564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Normand, Denis & Hawley, Gilbert & Gillespie, W Irwin, 1983. "In Search of the Changing Distribution of Income during the Post-War Period in Canada and the United States," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 38(2), pages 267-281.
    3. Aaron, Henry & McGuire, Martin, 1970. "Public Goods and Income Distribution," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(6), pages 907-920, November.
    4. Brittain, John A, 1972. "The Incidence of the Social Security Payroll Tax: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 739-742, September.
    5. René Frey & Robert E. Leu, 1983. "Umverteilung über den Staatshaushalt: Die personelle Budgetinzidenz der Schweiz 1977," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 119(I), pages 1-21, March.
    6. William D. Nordhaus & James Tobin, 1972. "Economic Research: Retrospect and Prospect, Volume 5, Economic Growth," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number nord72-1.
    7. Michael O'Higgins & Patricia Ruggles, 1981. "The Distribution Of Public Expenditures And Taxes Among Households In The United Kingdom," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 27(3), pages 298-326, September.
    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. Savatore Puglisi & Ionuț Virgil Șerban, 2019. "Beyond Gdp: Which Options To Better Represent Modern Socio-Economic Progress?," Sociology and Social Work Review, International Society for projects in Education and Research, vol. 3(1), pages 17-32, June.
    2. Guido Bonatti & Enrico Ivaldi, 2016. "Un indicatore per la misurazione della partecipazione culturale e sociale nelle regioni italiane," ECONOMIA E DIRITTO DEL TERZIARIO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 283-302.
    3. Jochimsen Beate & Raffer Christian, 2018. "Herausforderungen bei der Messung von Wohlfahrt," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 67(1), pages 63-100, May.
    4. Goletsis, Y. & Chletsos, M., 2011. "Measurement of development and regional disparities in Greek periphery: A multivariate approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 174-183, December.
    5. Amjad Ali & Marc Audi & Chan Bibi & Yannick Roussel, 2021. "The Impact of Gender Inequality and Environmental Degradation on Human Well-being in the Case of Pakistan: A Time Series Analysis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(2), pages 92-99.
    6. Hamilton,Kirk E. & Helliwell,John F. & Woolcock,Michael, 2016. "Social capital, trust, and well-being in the evaluation of wealth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7707, The World Bank.
    7. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Ashley Lester & David N. Weil, 2009. "When Does Improving Health Raise GDP?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 157-204, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Quamrul H. Ashraf & David N. Weil & Joshua Wilde, 2011. "The Effect of Interventions to Reduce Fertility on Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 17377, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Kenneth Kuttner & Adam Posen, 2011. "How Flexible Can Inflation Targeting Be and Still Work?," Department of Economics Working Papers 2011-10, Department of Economics, Williams College, revised Sep 2011.
    10. Quentin Couix, 2019. "Natural resources in the theory of production: the Georgescu-Roegen/Daly versus Solow/Stiglitz controversy," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 1341-1378, November.
    11. Dimitrios A. Giannias, 1998. "A Quality of Life Based Ranking of Canadian Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(12), pages 2241-2251, December.
    12. Zoltán Nagy & Tekla Sebestyén Szép, 2017. "Sustainable Energy in Post-Communist East- Central Europe - A Comprehensive Study," Theory Methodology Practice (TMP), Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc, vol. 13(02), pages 59-70.
    13. Stefano Fenoaltea, 2018. "Spleen: the failures of the cliometric school," HHB Working Papers Series 14, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    14. Madsen, Jakob & Strulik, Holger, 2020. "Technological change and inequality in the very long run," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    15. Remzi Baris Tercioglu, 2019. "Rethinking growth and inequality in the US: What is the role of measurement of GDP?," Working Papers 1906, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2020.
    16. Vardon, Michael & Burnett, Peter & Dovers, Stephen, 2016. "The accounting push and the policy pull: balancing environment and economic decisions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 145-152.
    17. Ilan Noy & Rio Yonson, 2018. "Economic Vulnerability and Resilience to Natural Hazards: A Survey of Concepts and Measurements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    18. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2018. "A Modest Proposal For Augmenting The Gross Domestic Product Of Italy, Allowing Greater Public Spending, Employment, And Graft," MPRA Paper 89746, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Kahn, Matthew E. & Walsh, Randall, 2015. "Cities and the Environment," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 405-465, Elsevier.
    20. Diane Coyle & Leonard Nakamura, 2019. "Towards a Framework for Time Use, Welfare and Household-centric Economic Measurement," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2019-01, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).

    More about this item

    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:sae:envirc:v:3:y:1985:i:2:p:199-213. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.