IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp6641.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lifetime versus Annual Tax Progressivity: Sweden, 1968–2009

Author

Listed:
  • Bengtsson, Niklas

    (Uppsala University)

  • Holmlund, Bertil

    (Uppsala University)

  • Waldenström, Daniel

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Stockholm)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of tax progressivity in Sweden from both annual and lifetime perspectives. Using a rich micro panel with administrative records of incomes, taxes and benefits over the period 1968–2009, we calculate tax rates across the income distribution accounting for different tax bases as well as the role of transfers. The uniquely long time span also allows us to compute tax progressivity as realized over a cohort's entire life cycle. Our main finding is that taxes are considerably less progressive over the lifetime than in any single year. In fact, life cycle taxes are close to proportional, bearing a redistributive effect of only a few percent. Intragenerational income mobility seems to be driving this result, although the Swedish economic crisis of the 1990s and the tax reforms of 1971 and 1991 are also important. Labor income taxes contribute less to progressivity in recent years, whereas transfers to unemployed and old-age pensioners have become increasingly important. These findings are robust to the use of different tax rates, tax bases, sample populations, rates of discounting and controls for reranking.

Suggested Citation

  • Bengtsson, Niklas & Holmlund, Bertil & Waldenström, Daniel, 2012. "Lifetime versus Annual Tax Progressivity: Sweden, 1968–2009," IZA Discussion Papers 6641, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp6641.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Slemrod,Joel, 1997. "Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521587761, January.
    2. John Creedy & Justin Van De Ven, 2001. "Decomposing Redistributive Effects of Taxes and Transfers in Australia: Annual and Lifetime Measures," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 185-198, June.
    3. Caspersen, Erik & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 1994. "Is a Value Added Tax Regressive? Annual Versus Lifetime Incidence Measures," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(4), pages 731-746, December.
    4. N. S. Blomquist, 1981. "A Comparison Of Distributions Of Annual And Lifetime Income: Sweden Around 1970," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 27(3), pages 243-264, September.
    5. Peter Lindert, 2004. "Social Spending and Economic Growth," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 6-16.
    6. Ivica Urban & Peter J. Lambert, 2008. "Redistribution, Horizontal Inequity, and Reranking," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(5), pages 563-587, September.
    7. Edin, P.-A. & Fredriksson, P., 2000. "LINDA - Longitudinal INdividual DAta for Sweden," Papers 2000:19, Uppsala - Working Paper Series.
    8. Andreas Peichl & Philippe van Kerm, 2007. "PROGRES: Stata module to measure distributive effects of an income tax," Statistical Software Components S456867, Boston College Department of Economics.
    9. repec:bla:revinw:v:27:y:1981:i:3:p:243-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Anthony B. Atkinson & Andrea Brandolini, 2011. "On the identification of the “middle class”," Working Papers 217, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. John Creedy (ed.), 1994. "Taxation, Poverty And Income Distribution," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 113.
    12. repec:bla:ausecp:v:40:y:2001:i:2:p:185-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Björklund, Anders & Palme, Mårten, 1997. "Income Redistribution within the Life Cycle versus between Individuals: Empirical Evidence Using Swedish Panel Data," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 197, Stockholm School of Economics.
    14. Davies, James B & St-Hilaire, France & Whalley, John, 1984. "Some Calculations of Lifetime Tax Incidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 633-649, September.
    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. Alexis Eidelman & Fabrice Langumier & Augustin Vicard, 2013. "Prélèvements et transferts aux ménages : des canaux redistributifs différents en 1990 et 2010," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 459(1), pages 5-26.
    2. Boschini, Anne & Gunnarsson, Kristin & Roine, Jesper, 2017. "Women in Top Incomes: Evidence from Sweden 1974–2013," IZA Discussion Papers 10979, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Sara Torregrosa Hetland, 2015. "Did democracy bring redistribution? Insights from the Spanish tax system, 1960–90," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 19(3), pages 294-315.
    4. Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel, 2013. "Multidimensional affluence: theory and applications to Germany and the US," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(32), pages 4591-4601, November.
    5. Peter Levell & Barra Roantree & Jonathan Shaw, 2021. "Mobility and the lifetime distributional impact of tax and transfer reforms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(4), pages 751-793, August.
    6. Sara Torregrosa Hetland, 2015. "Did democracy bring redistribution? Insights from the Spanish tax system, 1960–90," European Review of Economic History, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 294-315.
    7. Torregrosa Hetland, Sara & Sabaté, Oriol, 2021. "Income Taxes and Redistribution in the Early Twentieth Century," Lund Papers in Economic History 224, Lund University, Department of Economic History, revised 05 Sep 2022.
    8. Mike Brewer & Monica Costa Dias & Jonathan Shaw, 2012. "Lifetime inequality and redistribution," IFS Working Papers W12/23, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Peter H. Lindert, 2017. "The Rise and Future of Progressive Redistribution," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 73, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    10. Gerlinde Verbist & Francesco Figari, 2014. "The Redistributive Effect and Progressivity of Taxes Revisited: An International Comparison across the European Union," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 70(3), pages 405-429, September.
    11. Elin Halvorsen & Thor O. Thoresen, 2021. "Distributional Effects of a Wealth Tax under Lifetime‐Dynastic Income Concepts," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 184-215, January.
    12. Sara Torregrosa Hetland, 2014. "A fiscal revolution? Progressivity in the Spanish tax system, 1960-1990," Working Papers 2014/8, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    13. Sina Önder, Ali & Terviö, Marko, 2013. "Is Economics a House Divided? Analysis of Citation Networks," Working Paper Series 2013:5, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.

    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. Sara Torregrosa Hetland, 2015. "Did democracy bring redistribution? Insights from the Spanish tax system, 1960–90," European Review of Economic History, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 294-315.
    2. Parry, Ian & Walls, Margaret & Sigman, Hilary & Williams III, Roberton, 2005. "The Incidence of Pollution Control Policies," RFF Working Paper Series dp-05-24, Resources for the Future.
    3. Peter Lambert & Thor Thoresen & Runa Nesbakken, 2010. "On the Meaning and Measurement of Redistribution in Cross-Country Comparisons," LIS Working papers 532, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. Daniel R. Feenberg & Andrew W. Mitrusi & James M. Poterba, 1997. "Distributional Effects of Adopting a National Retail Sales Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 49-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Yingxu Kuang & Ted Englebrecht & Otis W. Gilley, 2011. "A Distributional Analysis of the FairTax Plan: Annual and Lifetime Income Considerations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(2), pages 358-381, October.
    6. Bachas, Pierre & Gadenne, Lucie & Jensen, Anders, 2020. "Informality, Consumption Taxes and Redistribution," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1277, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    7. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    8. Nicolas Herault & Francisco Azpitarte, 2014. "Recent Trends in Income Redistribution in Australia: Can Changes in the Tax-Transfer System Account for the Decline in Redistribution?," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2014n02, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    9. Ivica Urban, 2009. "Kakwani decomposition of redistributive effect: Origins, critics and upgrades," Working Papers 148, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2007. "How Progressive is the U.S. Federal Tax System? A Historical and International Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 3-24, Winter.
    11. William G. Gale & Samuel Brown, 2013. "Tax Reform for Growth, Equity, and Revenue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(6), pages 721-754, November.
    12. Charlotte Bartels, 2012. "Redistribution and Insurance in the German Welfare State," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 132(2), pages 265-295.
    13. Peter Levell & Barra Roantree & Jonathan Shaw, 2021. "Mobility and the lifetime distributional impact of tax and transfer reforms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(4), pages 751-793, August.
    14. Parry, Ian W. H., 2004. "Are emissions permits regressive?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 364-387, March.
    15. Cathal O’Donoghue, 2001. "Redistribution over the Lifetime in the Irish Tax-Benefit System - An Application of a Prototype Dynamic Microsimulation Model for Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 191-216.
    16. Hooper, Paul & Smith, Karen A., 1997. "A value-added tax in the U.S.: An argument in favor," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 78-83.
    17. Fehr, Hans, 1999. "Welfare Effects of Dynamic Tax Reforms," Beiträge zur Finanzwissenschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 1, volume 5, number urn:isbn:9783161470165, September.
    18. Peter J. Lambert & Runa Nesbakken & Thor O. Thoresen, 2015. "A common base answer to "Which country is most redistributive?"," Discussion Papers 811, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    19. Elin Halvorsen & Thor O. Thoresen, 2021. "Distributional Effects of a Wealth Tax under Lifetime‐Dynastic Income Concepts," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 184-215, January.
    20. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1997. "Distributional Implications of Introducing a Broad-Based Consumption Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 1-48, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Kakwani index; redistributive effect; lifetime income; income distribution; tax progressivity; transfers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    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:iza:izadps:dp6641. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.