IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lis/liswps/184.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Redistributive Aim of Social Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Taxes, Tax Expenditure Transfers and Direct Transfers in Eight Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Rune Ervik

Abstract

In this paper I will study in a comparative perspective how taxes, social transfers and tax expenditures effect the social policy goal of redistributing income. The following countries are included in the analysis: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. These countries reveal variation both with respect to the organization of their welfare and taxation systems and in relation to income distribution. The aim of the study is threefold: to show how these welfare states combine the tools of taxes and transfers differently, resulting in substantial variations of redistributive capacity; to identify and account for changes in the redistributive capacity of these welfare states through and analysis of data for the time period ca 1980-1995.; and the use of tax expenditures.

Suggested Citation

  • Rune Ervik, 1998. "The Redistributive Aim of Social Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Taxes, Tax Expenditure Transfers and Direct Transfers in Eight Countries," LIS Working papers 184, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
  • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:184
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/184.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Saunders & Timothy M. Smeeding & John Coder & Stephen Jenkins & Johan Fritzell & Aldi J. M. Hagenaars & Richard Hauser & Michael Wolfson, 1993. "Non-cash Income, Living Standards and Inequality: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study," International Economic Association Series, in: Dieter Bös (ed.), Economics in a Changing World, chapter 11, pages 198-217, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Timothy Smeeding, 1997. "American Income Inequality in a Cross-National Perspective: Why Are We So Different?," LIS Working papers 157, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    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. Ivica Urban, 2014. "Contributions of taxes and benefits to vertical and horizontal effects," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(3), pages 619-645, March.
    2. Caminada, Koen & Goudswaard, Kees, 1999. "Social policy and income distribution: An empirical analysis for the Netherlands," MPRA Paper 20183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2001. "International Trends in Income Inequality and Social Policy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(4), pages 395-415, August.
    4. Samuel Dastrup & Rachel Hartshorn & James McDonald, 2007. "The impact of taxes and transfer payments on the distribution of income: A parametric comparison," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(3), pages 353-369, December.
    5. Koen Caminada & Chen Wang, 2011. "Disentangling Income Inequality and the Redistributive Effect of Social Transfers and Taxes in 36 LIS Countries," LIS Working papers 567, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Chen Wang & Kees Goudswaard & Koen Caminada, 2012. "Disentangling Income Inequality and the Redistributive Effect of Taxes and Transfers in 20 LIS Countries Over Time Evidence from the LIS Data," LIS Working papers 581, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Ivica Urban, 2009. "Kakwani decomposition of redistributive effect: Origins, critics and upgrades," Working Papers 148, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. John Scott, 2002. "High Inequality, Low Revenue: Redistributive Efficiency on Latin American Fiscal Policy in Comparative Perspective," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8907, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2005. "Are Public and Private Social Expenditures Complementary?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 11(2), pages 175-189, May.
    10. Esteve Mora, F. & Muñoz De Bustillo Llorente, R., 2004. "Mitos y falacias populares en el debate acerca de los sistemas de pensiones/Myths and Fallacies in the Debate About the Future of Pension Systems," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 22, pages 289-316, Agosto.
    11. Christopher Niggle, 2003. "Globalization, Neoliberalism and the attack on social security," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(1), pages 51-71.
    12. Caminada, Koen & Goudswaard, Kees & Wang, Chen, 2012. "Disentangling income inequality and the redistributive effect of taxes and transfers in 20 LIS countries over time," MPRA Paper 42350, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Mau, Steffen, 2001. "Patterns of popular support for the welfare state: a comparison of the United Kingdom and Germany," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Social Structure and Social Reporting FS III 01-405, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    14. Saša Randjelović & Jelena Žarković-Rakić, 2011. "Addressing Inequality And Poverty With Tax Instruments," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 56(190), pages 7-26, July – Se.
    15. Koen Caminada & Jinxian Wang & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang, 2017. "Income inequality and fiscal redistribution in 47 LIS-countries, 1967-2014," LIS Working papers 724, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    16. repec:kap:iaecre:v:11:y:2005:i:2:p:175-189 is not listed 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. Eva Sierminska, 2004. "Female Income Differentials and Social Benefits: A Four Country Comparison," LIS Working papers 377, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Dmitry Kabrelyan, 2000. "A Comparison of the Earnings of Immigrants in Canada, United States, Australia and Germany," LIS Working papers 241, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Andreas Bergh & Therese Nilsson, 2014. "When More Poor Means Less Poverty: On Income Inequality and Purchasing Power," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(1), pages 232-246, July.
    4. Peter Whiteford, 1997. "Measuring Poverty and Income Inequality in Australia," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 4(1), pages 39-50.
    5. Figari, Francesco & Paulus, Alari & Sutherland, Holly & Tsakloglou, Panos & Verbist, Gerlinde & Zantomio, Francesca, 2012. "Taxing Home Ownership: Distributional Effects of Including Net Imputed Rent in Taxable Income," IZA Discussion Papers 6493, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Bruno Martorano, 2015. "Is It Possible to Adjust ‘With a Human Face’? Differences in Fiscal Consolidation Strategies between Hungary and Iceland," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 57(4), pages 623-654, December.
    7. Carlos Mulas-Granados, 2005. "Fiscal Adjustments and the Short-Term Trade-Off between economic growth and equality," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 172(1), pages 61-92, June.
    8. Lee Rainwater & Timothy Smeeding, 2002. "Comparing Living Standards Across Nations: Real Incomes at the Top, the Bottom and the Middle," LIS Working papers 266, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Andrzej Grodner & Timothy Smeeding, 2000. "Changing Income Inequality in OECD Countries: Updated Results from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)," LIS Working papers 252, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    10. Carlos Mulas-Granados, 2003. "The Trade-Off between Growth & Equality and the Economic Impact of Alternative Fiscal Adjustment Strategies in the EU," European Economy Group Working Papers 20, European Economy Group.
    11. Andreas Bergh, 2005. "On Inter‐ and Intra‐Individual Redistribution of the Welfare State," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(s1), pages 984-995, December.
    12. Melchor Fernández & Alberto Meixide & Hipólito J. Simón, "undated". "El trabajo de bajos salarios en Espana," Studies on the Spanish Economy 152, FEDEA.
    13. David Jesuit & Douglas Roscoe & Vincent Mahler, 1997. "Exploring the Impact of Trade and Investment on Income Inequality: A Cross-National Sectoral Analysis of the Developed Market Economy Countries," LIS Working papers 159, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Olli Kangas & Veli-Matti Ritakallio, 2004. "Relative to What? Cross-national Picture of European Poverty Measured by Regional, National and European Standards," LIS Working papers 384, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    15. Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M., 2001. "Der Einfluß von Imputed Rent auf die personelle Einkommensverteilung," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 221(3), pages 285-308.

    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:lis:liswps:184. 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: Piotr Paradowski (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lisprlu.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.