IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v42y2014i3p287-303.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality and Poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay: Introduction to the Special Issue

Author

Listed:
  • Nora Lustig
  • Carola Pessino
  • John Scott

Abstract

How much redistribution and poverty reduction is being accomplished in Latin America through social spending, subsidies, and taxes? Standard fiscal incidence analyses applied to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay using a comparable methodology yields the following results. Direct taxes and cash transfers reduce inequality and poverty by nontrivial amounts in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay but less so in Bolivia, Mexico, and Peru. While direct taxes are progressive, the redistributive impact is small because direct taxes as a share of GDP are generally low. Cash transfers are quite progressive in absolute terms, except in Bolivia where programs are not targeted to the poor. In Bolivia and Brazil, indirect taxes more than offset the poverty-reducing impact of cash transfers. When one includes the in-kind transfers in education and health, valued at government costs, they reduce inequality in all countries by considerably more than cash transfers, reflecting their relative size.

Suggested Citation

  • Nora Lustig & Carola Pessino & John Scott, 2014. "The Impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality and Poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay: Introduction to the Special Issue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(3), pages 287-303, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:287-303
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142113506931
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142113506931
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142113506931?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. Lustig, Nora & Lopez-Calva, Luis F. & Ortiz-Juarez, Eduardo, 2013. "Declining Inequality in Latin America in the 2000s: The Cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 129-141.
    2. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer & Adam Wagstaff & Magnus Lindelow, 2008. "Analyzing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data : A Guide to Techniques and Their Implementation," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6896.
    3. 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 , 2013. "The impact of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1313, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2013.
    4. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Indicators 2012," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6014.
    5. World Bank, 2013. "World Development Indicators 2013," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13191.
    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. Peter Edward & Andy Sumner, 2013. "Inequality from a global perspective: An alternative approach," Working Papers 302, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2014. "Africa is on time," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 311-338, September.
    3. Baurzhan, Saule & Jenkins, Glenn P., 2016. "Off-grid solar PV: Is it an affordable or appropriate solution for rural electrification in Sub-Saharan African countries?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1405-1418.
    4. Stefan Thewissen & Olaf Vliet & Chen Wang, 2018. "Taking the Sector Seriously: Data, Developments, and Drivers of Intrasectoral Earnings Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 1023-1048, August.
    5. Brücker, Herbert & Bertoli, Simone & Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Jesús, 2013. "The European Crisis and Migration to Germany: Expectations and the Diversion of Migration Flows," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79693, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Luis Rosero-Bixby & William H. Dow & David H. Rehkopf, 2013. "The Nicoya region of Costa Rica: a high longevity island for elderly males," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 11(1), pages 109-136.
    7. Debashis Chakraborty & Sacchidananda Mukherjee, 2013. "Fiscal Subsidies and Environmental Sustainability: What does the Cross-country Empirical Estimates Suggest?," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 48(3), pages 383-397, August.
    8. Katarzyna Burzynska & Olle Berggren, 2015. "The Impact of Social Beliefs on Microfinance Performance," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(7), pages 1074-1097, October.
    9. Peter W. Daniels & Pengfei Ni, 2014. "Urbanisation and changes in the sectoral structure of economic development: the scale of the manufacturing sector in Chinese cities and the shift towards service industry," Working Papers hal-00943972, HAL.
    10. Anna Marie Dyhr Ulrich & Svend Hollensen & Britta Boyd, 2014. "Entry Mode Strategies into the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) Markets," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 15(3), pages 423-445, September.
    11. Kanslime, Monica K. & Karanja, Daniel K. & Alokit, Christine & Ochieng, Justus, 2018. "Derived demand for African indigenous vegetable seed: implications for farmer-seed entrepreneurship development," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(6), July.
    12. Sean Higgins & Claudiney Pereira, 2013. "The effects of Brazil's high taxation and social spending on the distribution of household income," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1307, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised May 2013.
    13. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Solarin, Sakiru Adebola & Mahmood, Haider & Arouri, Mohamed, 2013. "Does financial development reduce CO2 emissions in Malaysian economy? A time series analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 145-152.
    14. Umbreen IFTEKHAR & Dawood MAMOON & Muhammad S. HASSAN, 2017. "How Government Policy and Demographics affect Money Demand Function in Bangladesh," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 66-74, March.
    15. Roberto Ricciuti & Antonio Savoia & Kunal Sen, 2019. "What determines administrative capacity in developing countries?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(5), pages 972-998, October.
    16. Ebenezer Adesoji Olubiyi, 2014. "Trade, Remittances and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Any Causal Relationship?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 274-285, June.
    17. 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 , 2013. "The impact of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay: An overview," Working Papers 315, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    18. Martins Iyoboyi & Olarinde Muftau O & Abdulsalam S. Ademola, 2016. "The Institutional and Policy Environment and the Quest for Industrialization in Nigeria," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 8(2), pages 13-25.
    19. Nora Lustig, 2015. "Fiscal Policy and Ethno-Racial Inequality in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala and Uruguay," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 22, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    20. Kundu, Nobinkhor & Mollah, Muhammad Musharuf Hossain, 2014. "Empirical Approaches to the Post-Keynesian Theory of Demand for Money: An Error Correction Model of Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 65727, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Oct 2014.

    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:pubfin:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:287-303. 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.