IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wrk/wcreta/29.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Skewness, Tax Progression, and Demand for Redistribution : Evidence from the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Pogorelskiy, Kirill

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

  • Traub, Stefan

    (Helmut-Schmidt-Universitat Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

We introduce a skewness-based approach to measure tax progression and demand for redistribution. Adapting a novel, quantile-based statistical measure of skewness to right-skewed income distributions, we uncover its political economy foundation, by simultaneously relating the same measure to the classical model of income redistribution due to Meltzer and Richard (1981), to the Prospect Of Upward Mobility (POUM) mechanism due to Benabou and Ok (2001), and to the progressivity of a tax schedule. In an empirical analysis of UK income distributions in 1979 { 2013, we find that skewness has increased over time, with the rich moving further away from the median. While the magnitude of the increase has remained small enough so that observed redistribution (or lack thereof ) could be consistent with POUM hypothesis, more recent periods show an increase in tax progression.

Suggested Citation

  • Pogorelskiy, Kirill & Traub, Stefan, 2017. "Skewness, Tax Progression, and Demand for Redistribution : Evidence from the UK," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 29, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:wcreta:29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/creta/papers/manage/29_-_creta_pogorelskiy.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-71, March.
    2. Agranov, Marina & Palfrey, Thomas R., 2015. "Equilibrium tax rates and income redistribution: A laboratory study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 45-58.
    3. Walter Kraemer & Holger Dette, 2016. "Beyond Inequality: A Novel Measure of Skewness and its Properties," CESifo Working Paper Series 5972, CESifo.
    4. Christian Seidl & Kirill Pogorelskiy & Stefan Traub, 2013. "Tax Progression in OECD Countries," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-642-28317-8, March.
    5. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00847231 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1994. "Is Inequality Harmful for Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 600-621, June.
    7. Milanovic, Branko, 2000. "The median-voter hypothesis, income inequality, and income redistribution: an empirical test with the required data," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 367-410, September.
    8. Samuel Kotz & Edith Seier, 2009. "An analysis of quantile measures of kurtosis: center and tails," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 553-568, June.
    9. Facundo Alvaredo & Anthony Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "The Top 1% in International and Historical Perspective," Post-Print halshs-00847231, HAL.
    10. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2002. "Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262661314, December.
    11. Facundo Alvaredo & Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 3-20, Summer.
    12. Marina Agranov & Thomas R. Palfrey, 2016. "The Effects of Income Mobility and Tax Persistence on Income Redistribution and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 22759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Fatih Guvenen & Greg Kaplan, 2017. "Top Income Inequality in the 21st Century: Some Cautionary Notes," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue October, pages 2-15.
    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. Andreoli, Francesco & Olivera, Javier, 2020. "Preferences for redistribution and exposure to tax-benefit schemes in Europe," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Christou, Christina & Gupta, Rangan & Jawadi, Fredj, 2021. "Does inequality help in forecasting equity premium in a panel of G7 countries?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Huang, Ho-Chuan (River) & Fang, WenShwo & Miller, Stephen M. & Yeh, Chih-Chuan, 2015. "The effect of growth volatility on income inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 212-222.
    4. Fabio Padovano & Francesco Scervini & Gilberto Turati, 2021. "Comparing governments’ efficiency at supplying income redistribution," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 68-97, March.
    5. Benjamin Pugsley & Sebastian Dyrda, 2017. "Taxes, Regulations of Businesses and Evolution of Income Inequality in the US," 2017 Meeting Papers 1463, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Roy van der Weide & Branko Milanovic, 2018. "Inequality is Bad for Growth of the Poor (but Not for That of the Rich)," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 507-530.
    7. Fabio Padovano & Francesco Scervini & Gilberto Turati, 2016. "How do Governments Fare about Redistribution? New Evidence on the Political Economy of Redistribution," CESifo Working Paper Series 6137, CESifo.
    8. Sudeshna Ghosh, 2020. "Impact of economic growth volatility on income inequality: ASEAN experience," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 807-850, June.
    9. Florence Jaumotte & Carolina Osorio Buitron, 2020. "Inequality: traditional drivers and the role of union power," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(1), pages 25-58.
    10. European Commission, 2013. "Tax reforms in EU Member States - Tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability – 2013 Report," Taxation Papers 38, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    11. Stefan Bach, 2014. ""Reichensteuer"-Diskussion: Hintergrund und Perspektiven," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 16, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Bartling, Björn & Cappelen, Alexander W & Ekström, Mathias & Sørensen, Erik Ø. & Tungodden, Bertil, 2018. "Fairness in Winner-Take-All Markets," Working Paper Series 1214, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    13. Anna & Leonardo Weller, 2018. "Was Cold War A Constraint To Income Inequality?," Anais do XLIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 44th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 94, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    14. Vincenzo Carrieri & Francesco Principe & Michele Raitano, 2018. "What makes you ‘super-rich’? New evidence from an analysis of football players’ wages," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(4), pages 950-973.
    15. Alvaredo, Facundo & Cogneau, Denis & Piketty, Thomas, 2021. "Income inequality under colonial rule. Evidence from French Algeria, Cameroon, Tunisia, and Vietnam and comparisons with British colonies 1920–1960," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    16. Tommaso Ciarli & André Lorentz & Marco Valente & Maria Savona, 2019. "Structural changes and growth regimes," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 119-176, March.
    17. Frederic L Pryor, 2015. "Recent Fracturing in the US Economy and Society," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 230-250, March.
    18. Yuri Biondi & Simone Righi, 2019. "Inequality, mobility and the financial accumulation process: a computational economic analysis," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 14(1), pages 93-119, March.
    19. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    20. Advani, Arun & Summers, Andy & Tarrant, Hannah, 2020. "Measuring UK top incomes," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 490, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    quantile skewness ; inequality ; voting over redistribution ; tax progression JEL classification numbers: D31 ; D63 ; H20 ; P16;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    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:wrk:wcreta:29. 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: Margaret Nash (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewaruk.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.