The success of the flat rate tax in Eastern Europe suggests that this concept could also be a model for the welfare states of Western Europe. The present paper uses a simulation model to analyse the effects of revenue neutral flat rate tax reforms on equity and efficiency for the case of...

The flat income tax has become increasingly popular recently, yet its implementation is limited to Eastern Europe. We analyse the distributional and efficiency effects of flat tax scenarios for Western European countries. Our simulations show that flat tax rates required to attain revenue...

Mircrosimulation models (MSM) and Computable General Equilibrium models (CGE) have both been widely used in policy analysis. The combination of these two model types allows the utilisation of the advantages of both types. The aim of this paper is to describe the state-of-the-art in simulation...

This documentation describes FiFoSiM, the integrated tax benefit microsimulation and CGE model of the Center of Public Economics at the University of Cologne. FiFoSiM consists of three main parts. The first part is a static tax benefit microsimulation module. The second part adds a behavioural...

Diese Dokumentation beschreibt das integrierte Steuer-Transfer-Mikrosimulations- und CGE-Modell FiFoSiM des Finanzwissenschaftlichen Forschungsinstituts an der Universität zu Köln (FiFo). FiFoSiM unterscheidet sich von den bisherigen Steuer- und Transfersimulationsmodellen auf zweierlei Weise...

In diesem Beitrag wird die empirische allgemeine Gleichgewichtsanalyse als Methode zur empirischen ex ante Evaluation komplexer ökonomischer Auswirkungen von Steuerreformen vorgestellt und ein Überblick über die empirische Literatur gegeben. Den vielfältigen Anwendungsgebieten dieser Methode...

This paper investigates the impact of tax simplification on various indicators of the efficiency of the tax system and on the distribution of income. The analysis is based on a simulation model (FiFoSiM) using German income tax and household survey microdata. We model tax simplification as the...

Angesichts der dramatischen demographischen Entwicklung in Deutschland hat das Interesse der Politik an der wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Situation von Haushalten mit Kindern in den letzten Jahren stark zugenommen. Das gilt nicht zuletzt auch für den Bereich der Steuerpolitik. Im vorliegenden...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how to analyse the distributional effects of fiscal reforms. Thereby, distributional e¤ects shall be differentiated by four subconcepts, i.e. 1.) the traditional concept of inequality, 2.) the rather novel concept of polarisation, 3.) the...