This paper applies an extended Lorenz dominance welfare principle to make and compare estimates of the overall progressivity of taxes and transfers for Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the U.S.

Uses LIS microdata to construct Lorenz-type curves in order to make ordinal comparisons of tax two types of progressivity 'residual' and 'liability'. This analysis is applied to investigate the redistributive effect of direct taxes in six countries.

Micro data from audited tax returns are used to evaluatechanges in the actual progressitivity of U.S. federal incometaxes in 1979 and 1988, which is distinct from apparent progressivity.Statistical inference methods are applied to global measuresof both actual and apparent residual and liability...

This paper comments on the work of Rector et al. (1999a, 1999b). The poverty lines implicit in their restrictive material deprivation approach are disputed and the claim that America has triumphed over poverty is rejected. Evidence is presented showing that poverty among the poorest Americans...

This paper develops and applies new measures of poverty that overcome a number of specific methodological flaws in the official US poverty statistics. Sen's distribution sensitive index of poverty and each of its components are estimated at several distinct poverty thresholds for the period...

Increasingly, economists have acknowledged that a major limitation to economic theory has been its failure to incorporate human values and beliefs as motivational factors. This book explores how values and beliefs structure the dual processes of provisioning and consuming.