IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vuw/vuwcpf/20838.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Horizontal and Vertical Equity in the New Zealand Tax-Transfer System: 1988-2013

Author

Listed:
  • Nolan, Matt

Abstract

Between 1988 and 2013 New Zealand’s tax and welfare systems have experienced a significant period of change, with real benefit payments and tax rates both declining. When evaluating the perceived fairness of these reforms the focus has predominantly fallen on how average economic activity and income inequality changed. However, such evaluation is partial at best. In this paper I intend to extend the evaluation of tax-transfer policy change during this period by reframing the adjustment in the distribution of income (as proxied by the Gini coefficient) due to policy into “horizontal equity”, “vertical equity”, and “reranking” effects. This decomposition is achieved by applying the observed tax-transfers systems to two sets of pooled years of HES data (1988-1991 and 2011-2013), and then constructing appropriate concentration coefficients to analyse how the tax system transformed pre-tax and transfer family income into disposable family income. Such a decomposition allows us to discuss how the observed changes could be consistent with a change in perceptions of what is fair (eg the importance of treating equals the same vs the importance of redistributing income).

Suggested Citation

  • Nolan, Matt, 2018. "Horizontal and Vertical Equity in the New Zealand Tax-Transfer System: 1988-2013," Working Paper Series 20838, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:vuw:vuwcpf:20838
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.wgtn.ac.nz/handle/123456789/20838
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaplow, Louis, 1989. "Horizontal Equity: Measures in Search of a Principle," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 42(2), pages 139-54, June.
    2. 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.
    3. Valentino Dardanoni & Peter Lambert, 2001. "Horizontal inequity comparisons," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 18(4), pages 799-816.
    4. Justin Van De Ven & John Creedy & Peter J. Lambert, 2001. "Close Equals and Calculation of the Vertical, Horizontal and Reranking Effects of Taxation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(3), pages 381-394, July.
    5. Ivica Urban & Peter J. Lambert, 2008. "Redistribution, Horizontal Inequity, and Reranking," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(5), pages 563-587, September.
    6. Podder, Nripesh & Chatterjee, Srikanta, 2002. "Sharing the national cake in post reform New Zealand: income inequality trends in terms of income sources," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 1-27, October.
    7. King, Mervyn A, 1983. "An Index of Inequality: With Applications to Horizontal Equity and Social Mobility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(1), pages 99-115, January.
    8. Sen, Amartya, 2000. "Social justice and the distribution of income," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 59-85, Elsevier.
    9. Kaplow, Louis, 1989. "Horizontal Equity: Measures in Search of a Principle," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 42(2), pages 139-154, June.
    10. Plotnick, Robert, 1981. "A Measure of Horizontal Inequity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(2), pages 283-288, May.
    11. Aronson, J. Richard & Lambert, Peter J., 1994. "Decomposing the Gini Coefficient to Reveal the Vertical, Horizontal, and Reranking Effects of Income Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(2), pages 273-94, June.
    12. Aronson, J. Richard & Lambert, Peter J., 1994. "Decomposing the Gini Coefficient to Reveal the Vertical, Horizontal, and Reranking Effects of Income Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(2), pages 273-294, June.
    13. Nelson, Julie A, 1993. "Household Equivalence Scales: Theory versus Policy?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(3), pages 471-493, July.
    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. Nolan, Matt, 2018. "Horizontal and Vertical Equity in the New Zealand Tax-Transfer System: 1988-2013," Working Paper Series 7657, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    2. Ivica Urban, 2009. "Kakwani decomposition of redistributive effect: Origins, critics and upgrades," Working Papers 148, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Herault, Nicolas & Jenkins, Stephen P., 2023. "Redistribution, horizontal inequity, and reranking: direct taxation in the UK, 1977–2020," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120996, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Jalbert, Vincent & Araar, Abdelkrim, 2000. "Classical Horizontal Inequity and Reranking: an Integrated Approach," Cahiers de recherche 0002, Université Laval - Département d'économique.
    5. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & van der Burg, Hattem & Calonge, Samuel & Christiansen, Terkel & Citoni, Guido & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gerfin, Michael & Gross, Lorna & Hakinnen, Unto, 1999. "Redistributive effect, progressivity and differential tax treatment: Personal income taxes in twelve OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 73-98, April.
    6. Peter J. Lambert, 2004. "Income Taxation and Equity," Working Papers 2004/4, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    7. Nicolas Hérault & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2023. "Redistribution, horizontal inequity, and reranking: Direct taxation in the UK, 1977–2020," Working Papers 660, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Jalbert, Vincent & Araar, Abdelkrim, 2003. "Classical Horizontal Inequity and Reranking: an Integrating Approach," Cahiers de recherche 0306, CIRPEE.
    9. J. Richard Aronson & Peter J. Lambert & Donald R. Trippeer, 1999. "Estimates of the Changing Equity Characteristics of the U.S. Income Tax with International Conjectures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(2), pages 138-159, March.
    10. Erlend Bø & Peter Lambert & Thor Thoresen, 2012. "Horizontal inequity under a dual income tax system: principles and measurement," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(5), pages 625-640, October.
    11. Ivica Urban & Peter J. Lambert, 2008. "Redistribution, Horizontal Inequity, and Reranking," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(5), pages 563-587, September.
    12. Stefano Boscolo, 2020. "On the Horizontal Inequity Effect of the Erosion of the PIT Base: The Case of Italy," Department of Economics 0176, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    13. Stefano Boscolo, 2021. "On the horizontal inequity effect of the erosion of the pit base: the case of Italy," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 43-82.
    14. Maria Giovanna Monti & Simone Pellegrino & Achille Vernizzi, 2015. "On Measuring Inequity in Taxation Among Groups of Income Units," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(1), pages 43-58, March.
    15. Thomas L. Hungerford, 2010. "The Redistributive Effect of Selected Federal Transfer and Tax Provisions," Public Finance Review, , vol. 38(4), pages 450-472, July.
    16. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Sundberg, Gun, 1996. "Redistributive Effects of the Swedish Health Care Financing System," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 115, Stockholm School of Economics.
    17. Liu Baihui, 2017. "Redistributive Effect of Taxes and Transfers: Evidence from China," Journal of Tax Reform, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 3(1), pages 43-51.
    18. Alan J. Auerbach & Kevin A. Hassett, 2002. "A New Measure of Horizontal Equity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1116-1125, September.
    19. Abu-Zaineh, Mohammad & Mataria, Awad & Luchini, Stéphane & Moatti, Jean-Paul, 2009. "Equity in health care finance in Palestine: The triple effects revealed," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1071-1080, December.
    20. Bibi, Sami & Duclos, Jean-Yves, 2007. "Equity and policy effectiveness with imperfect targeting," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 109-140, May.

    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:vuw:vuwcpf:20838. 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: Library Technology Services (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fcvuwnz.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.