Using data on U.S. state and federal taxes and transfers over a quarter century, we estimate a regression model that yields the marginal effect of any shift of market income share from one quintile to another on the entire post tax, post-transfer income distribution. We identify exogenous income...

In several OECD countries, ongoing fiscal consolidation might have a negative impact on the static income distribution. However, this conclusion should be treated only as an approximate first step in the analysis. A full assessment of distributional effects of consolidation packages would need...

This paper provides an overview of the main findings of the book "Social Insurance and Labor Markets: How to Protect Workers While Creating New Jobs." The book conceptualizes and reviews the empirical evidence on the potential distortions that the social insurance system of a country can have on...

The current debt crisis has given rise to a debate about deeper fiscal integration in Europe. The view is widespread that moving towards a 'fiscal union' would have a stabilising effect in the event of macroeconomic shocks. In this paper we study the economic effects of introducing two elements...

This article attempts to bring consumption into the study of redistributive politics. Analyzing data from 20 OECD countries over the period 1995-2007, I investigate whether factors that allowed lower and middle-income households to sustain their consumption had any impact on governments'...

Currently the labour income ratio in China is normal relative to its economic development; the income differential between industries requires solutions from the continuing establishment of a market economic system and the reduction of monopolistic practices. The important income redistribution...

This paper studies how income tax rates are determined and how they are related to government corruption in the form of fund capture. A model is presented where rich voters can block redistribution by buying the votes of some poor voters. In equilibrium there is only limited redistribution and...

In a world of high capital mobility, governments may be tempted to undercut each other's capital income taxes to attract capital from abroad. Since such tax competition may have detrimental effects for all countries, European policy makers have debated the introduction of a minimum capital...

As a response to a changing labour market scenario and to the concerns for increasing costs and bad incentives of traditional income support policies, the last decades have witnessed, in many countries, reforms introducing more sophisticated designs of means-testing, eligibility and tagging. In...