Effective from 2005, benefits for long-term unemployed have been reduced in Germany to the level of social assistance. This measure reflects the view that "all who are able to work, should work" - a view which makes sense only if the government can distinguish the disabled from the productive....

Until 2004, German long-term unemployed received a tax-financed benefit (Arbeitslosenhilfe)which exceeded social assistance for the disabled (Sozialhilfe). This has beenchanged by the recent reform known as “Hartz IV”: Effective from 2005, long-termunemployed on the one hand (who are no more...

This Handbook entry presents a conceptual, normative overview of the subject of taxation. It emphasizes the relationships among the main functions of taxation—notably, raising revenue, redistributing income, and correcting externalities—and the mapping between these functions and various...

The composition of tax revenue in Ireland had changed dramatically over the past decade, with indirect taxes accounting for a large share of total tax revenue. This shift towards indirect taxation more than direct taxation tends to put excessive burden on the poor, thereby raising the concern...

Nous proposons une méthode pour évaluer la capacité des systèmes de taxation du revenu de diminuer la pauvreté, lorsque celle-ci est définie en cohérence avec une notion de niveau de vie issue de l’éthique de la responsabilité. Selon cette éthique, toutes les inégalités ne sont pas...

The paper is based on an individual life-cycle model, which describes the purely economic components of human capital. The present value of human capital is determined by all future income flows, which at the same time constitute the individual as well as the total tax base of a nation....

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the potential effects of a proposed tax reform in Serbia on poverty and vulnerable groups. The essence of the proposal is transferring the tax burden from wages to personal consumption, thus alleviating one production factor and therefore stimulating...

High income growth in many countries in East Asia and the Middle East has been accompanied by increasing income inequality and widening gaps between rich and poor, and urban and rural. It is therefore it is important to examine the interrelationships between inequality and economic growth. This...

In a model in which agents differ in wages and preferences over labor time-consumption bundles, we study labor income tax schemes that alleviate poverty. To avoid conflict with individual well-being, we require redistribution to take place between agents on both sides of the poverty line...

The existing literature on optimal taxation typically assumes there exists a capacity to implement complex tax schemes, which is not necessarily the case for many developing countries. We examine the determinants of optimal redistributive policies in the context of a developing country that can...