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Poverty-Decreasing Indirect Tax Reforms: Evidence from Tunisia

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  • Sami Bibi
  • Jean-Yves Duclos

Abstract

This paper suggests a methodology to identify socially-desirable directions for poverty-alleviating tax reforms. The cost-benefit ratio of increasing any commodity-tax rate is derived from the minimization of a poverty measure subject to a revenue requirement for the government. Further, to avoid the arbitrariness of choosing a poverty line and a poverty measure, the search for a poverty-reducing tax reform is done "robustly", among other things by increasing progressively the ethical content of a pre-defined class of poverty measures. The methodology is illustrated using data from Tunisia. The results suggest that poverty could be dropped for a large class of poverty indices and a wide range of poverty lines by raising -at constant fiscal revenue- the subsidy rate on hard wheat and mixed oils and by decreasing the one on sugar and milk.

Suggested Citation

  • Sami Bibi & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2004. "Poverty-Decreasing Indirect Tax Reforms: Evidence from Tunisia," Cahiers de recherche 0403, CIRPEE.
    • Handle: RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0403
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Raghbendra Jha, 2007. "Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries: A Synoptic View," ASARC Working Papers 2007-01, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    2. Eleni Sardianou, 2023. "Understanding Energy Poverty among the Elderly: Insights from a Household Survey in Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Sami Bibi & John Cockburn & Massa Coulibaly & Luca Tiberti, 2009. "The Impact of the Increase in Food Prices on Child Poverty and the Policy Response in Mali," Papers inwopa09/66, Innocenti Working Papers.
    4. Sami Bibi & Massa Coulibaly & John Cockburn & Luca Tiberti, 2009. "L'impact de la hausse des prix des produits alimentaires sur la pauvreté des enfants et les reponses politiques au Mali," Papers inwopa09/60, Innocenti Working Papers.
    5. Sami Bibi, 2005. "When is Economic Growth Pro-Poor? Evidence from Tunisia," Cahiers de recherche 0522, CIRPEE.
    6. Sami Bibi & Rim Chatti, 2006. "Trade Liberalization and the Dynamics of Poverty in Tunisia: a Layered CGE Microsimulation Analysis/Libéralisation des échanges et dynamique de la pauvreté en Tunisie: Analyse avec une micro-simulatio," Working Papers MPIA 2006-07, PEP-MPIA.
    7. Essama-Nssah, B., 2008. "Assessing the redistributive effect of fiscal policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4592, The World Bank.
    8. Sami Bibi, 2006. "Growth with Equity is Better for the Poor," Cahiers de recherche 0640, CIRPEE.
    9. Jorge N. Valero‐Gil & Magali Valero, 2008. "The effects of rising food prices on poverty in Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(s1), pages 485-496, November.
    10. Khaldi, Raoudha & Dhraief, Mohamed Zied & Haddad, Samia & Rached, Zouhair & Padilla, Martine, 2007. "Impact of the food safety policies on the reduction of poverty in Tunisian rural areas," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7928, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Ajitava Raychaudhuri & Sudip Kumar Sinha & Poulomi Roy, 2007. "Is the Value Added Tax Reform in India Poverty-Improving? An Analysis of Data from Two Major States," Working Papers PMMA 2007-18, PEP-PMMA.
    12. B. Essama-Nssah, 2007. "A poverty-focused evaluation of commodity tax options," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 1114-1130.
    13. Shubin Wang & Junsheng Ha & Hakan Kalkavan & Serhat Yüksel & Hasan Dinçer, 2020. "IT2-Based Hybrid Approach for Sustainable Economic Equality: A Case of E7 Economies," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty alleviation; Indirect taxation; Targeting; Tunisia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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