Distribution of public revenues and expenditures between households and firms in France since 1949: new data

We are building an original database from national accounts data and budget documents in order to examine the distribution of revenues collected from businesses and households and the amount of public spending devoted to supporting the market economy since 1949. The findings are as follows: i) households have contributed an average of 80% of tax revenues since 1949 and 66% of compulsory levies (including social security contributions), and the gap between the tax and social security burdens has widened since the 1980s; ii) subsidies and transfers accounted for 4.5% of national income between 1949 and 2021, they were stable over the period and have benefited households more since 1980; iii) but taking into account tax expenditure in addition to subsidies raises the amount of public aid to 9.7% of GDP and adding social exemptions to 11.7% of GDP on average per year; iv) their significant increase has benefited businesses, which have received the equivalent of 8.4% of GDP each year since 2010 without the amount falling for households.