[Note:] This paper is an adapted version of the substantive part of the Final Report to the European Commission of the project 'Improving the Capacity and Usability of EUROMOD (I-CUE)', Research Infrastructures Design Study 011859.

Tax and benefit systems in the enlarged EU vary significantly in size and structure. We examine how taxes and benefits shape income distributions in 19 EU countries, focusing on the differences between Western European countries (EU15) and Eastern European countries (Estonia, Hungary, Poland,...

Flat tax schemes are popular in Eastern Europe, with an ever increasing number of countries where it is introduced, and yet many other where it is recurringly discussed. Analysing three countries, we show that the design of such schemes largely determines their impact on fiscal revenues and on...

Each year, the Government decides how much to raise benefits and tax allowances. In the UK the basis for these upratings is rarely debated, yet has major long-term consequences for the relative living standards of different groups as well as for the public finances. This paper considers the...

This paper examines the distributional impacts of the changes to benefits, tax credits, pensions and direct taxes between the UK Elections in May 2010 and in May 2015. It also looks ahead to the longer-term effects of changes and plans that were announced by the 2010-2015 Coalition government,...

Tony Atkinson is universally celebrated for his outstanding contributions to the measurement and analysis of inequality, but he never saw the study of inequality as a separate branch of economics. He was an economist in the classical sense, rejecting any sub-field labelling of his interests and...