The aging of populations and hampering economic growth increase pressure on public finances in many advanced capitalist societies. Consequently, governments have adopted pension reforms in order to relieve pressure on public finances. These reforms have contributed to a relative shift from...

In most OECD countries the gap between rich and poor has widened over the past decades. This paper analyzes whether and to what extent taxes and social transfers have contributed to this trend. Has the redistributive power of different social programs changed over time? The paper contributes to...

Discussions on how to organize European labour markets are one of the key public policy issues of today. In European policy debates, the most important concepts seem to be ‘flexicurity' and the ‘transitional labour market.' In this report we examine the cross-country variation in the...

This paper analyzes the relationship between social expenditure and relative income poverty. A vast literature claims that high social effort goes along with low poverty levels across countries. Social expenditure ratios are generally used as a proxy for social effort. However, this indicator is...

In most OECD-countries income inequality has increased during the last two decades. In this paper, we investigate to what extent changes in the overall distribution of incomes can be attributed to social policy measures. The case for the Netherlands is particularly interesting, because the Dutch...

In this paper, we construct a flat rate/broad base personal income tax system and we compare the distribution of the current personal income tax (including social contributions) in the Netherlands to the distribution of the simulated flate rate tax. Using extended data (personal income panel...

Usually, only initial revenue effects of personal income tax reforms are considered. However, a tax reform characterized by base broadening in exchange for rate reduction can reduce the income elasticity of tax revenue. In that case, the increase in revenue after income growth will be relatively...

Throughout the last couple of decades the individual income tax systems of most industrialized countries have been (repeatedly) the subject of considerable reform efforts. Although the reform packages vary to a wide extent across countries, the direction of change is roughly similar. Most tax...