The motivation for this symposium was the view that the problems of taxation of the family are very important, indeed central, for income tax policy, but are relatively neglected in theoretical public economics. We hope that this collection will stimulate interest and further work in this area....

Cette note a pour objectif d’illustrer, dans le cas de la Belgique et de ses régions, un problème particulier posé par la mesure de la pauvreté. Etant donné que la mortalité varie selon le niveau de revenu – les personnes aux revenus plus élevés vivant plus longtemps, en moyenne, que...

In this article, we use data on five social inclusion indicators (poverty, inequality, unemployment, education and health) to assess and compare the performance of 15 European welfare states (EU15) over a 12-year period from 1995 to 2006. Aggregate measures of performance are obtained using...

This note presents and discusses a number of questionable assertions on retirement and on policies aimed at fostering labor participation among elderly workers. We show that these assertions are fallacious or at best highly questionable.

In this paper we use data on five social inclusion indicators (poverty, inequality, unemployment, education and health) to assess and compare the performance of 27 European welfare states (EU27) in 2008. Aggregate measures of performance are obtained using index number methods similar to those...

In a series of experiments conducted in Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), France and the Netherlands, we compare behavior regarding tax evasion and welfare dodging, with and without information about others’ behavior. Subjects have to decide between a ‘registered’ income, the realization of...

Existing political economy models of pensions focus on age and productivity. In this paper we incorporate two additional individual characteristics: sex and marital status. We ignore the role of age, by assuming that people vote at the start of their life, and characterize the preferred rate of...