This paper examines the sensitivity of inequality and poverty measures to the adult equivalence scale and the unit of analysis. Comparisons are made using parametric equivalence scales, and income units include individuals, equivalent adults and households. The role of the correlation between...

The exponential family of distributions offers considerable scope for the analysis of income distributions because of its ability to 'nest' many densities and the possibility of deriving special cases explicitly from labour demand and supply models. This paper presents several estimation methods...

This paper considers the implications for personal income tax and Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues of population ageing in New Zealand. It considers 'pure' ageing effects; that is, population size is held constant but its age distribution changes over the next 40 years. With age-earnings...

In New Zealand, excise taxes are levied on alcohol, tobacco and petrol. The advised that they should be removed and the revenue replaced by raising the standard rate of GST. This paper provides an empirical examination of these issues. First, the effects of the current system of indirect taxes...

This paper explores a method of examining the effects of macroeconomic variables on the personal distribution of income over time. The approach involves modelling the complete distribution of income in each year using a conditional mixture distribution. The parameters of the distribution are...

This paper examines the conditions under which a partial shift from a multi-step personal income tax structure towards a general consumption tax can be both revenue-neutral and distribution-neutral, in a cross-sectional context. In the absence of a tax-free-threshold, this can be achieved with a...

This paper investigates the choice of the composition of government expenditure using both positive and normative approaches. The former involves aggregation over selfish voters (simple majority voting and stochastic voting are examined), while the latter involves the choice by a single...

This paper investigates the implications of population ageing and changes in labour force participation rates for projections of revenue obtained from personal income taxation and a consumption tax (in the form of a broad-based goods and services tax). A projection model is presented, involving...

This paper discusses the challenge for fiscal sustainability in New Zealand in the face of the demographic transition involving population ageing and the 'ageing of the aged'. The need for rational policy analysis is stressed in examining a wide range of policy responses and trade-offs, and the...