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In this paper, we evaluate income distributions in four European countries (Austria, Italy, Spain and Hungary) using two complementary approaches: a standard approach based on reported incomes in survey data, and a microsimulation approach, where taxes and benefits are simulated. These two approaches may be expected to generate slightly different results, particularly in respect of individuals on lower incomes, because benefit receipts tend to be under-reported in survey data, and over-estimated in microsimulation procedures. However, we find that the two approaches do in fact produce reasonably consistent results, in terms of both inequality measures and poverty rates. To the extent that the results differ, we explore the reasons why these differences arise, and suggest directions for future research, in which each approach may inform improvements in the other.

International comparisons of inequality based on measures of disposable income may not be valid if the size and incidence of publicly provided in-kind benefits differ across the countries considered. The benefits that are financed by taxation in one country may need to be purchased out of disposable income in another. We estimate the size and incidence of in-kind or "noncash" benefits from public housing subsidies, education, and health care for five European countries using comparable methods and data. Inequality in the augmented income measure is dramatically lower than in disposable income, with the effects of the three components varying in importance across countries. Adapting equivalence scales to take proper account of differences in needs for health care and education across population members reduces the scale of the effect, but does not eliminate it. (Contains 11 tables, 3 figures, and 15 footnotes.)

We assess how tax‐benefit policy developments in 2001–11 affected the household income distribution in seven EU countries. We use the standard microsimulation‐based decomposition method, separating further the effect of structural policy changes and the uprating of monetary parameters, which allows us to measure the extent of fiscal drag and benefit erosion in practice. The results show that despite different fiscal effects, policies overall mostly reduced poverty and inequality and both types of policy developments had sizeable effects on the income distribution. We also find that the uprating of monetary parameters not only had a positive effect on household incomes, meaning fiscal drag and benefit erosion were avoided, but generally also contributed more to poverty and inequality reduction than structural policy reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how income poverty is affected by changes to the scale of tax-benefit policies and which are the most cost-effective policies in reducing poverty or limiting its increase in seven diverse EU countries. We do that by measuring the implications of increasing/reducing the scale of each policy instrument, using microsimulation methods while holding constant the policy design and national context. We consider commonly applied policy instruments with a direct effect on household income: child benefits, social assistance, income tax lower thresholds and a benchmark case of rescaling the whole tax-benefit system. We find that the assessment of the most cost-effective instrument may depend on the measure of poverty used and the direction and scale of the change. Nevertheless, our results indicate that the options that reduce poverty most cost-effectively in most countries are increasing child benefits and social assistance, while reducing the former is a particularly poverty-increasing way of making budgetary cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the extent to which tax-benefit systems provide an automatic stabilization of income for those who became unemployed at the onset of the Great Recession. The focus of the analysis is on the compensation for earnings lost due to unemployment which is channeled through the welfare systems to this group of people who are clearly vulnerable to the recession's adverse effects. In order to assess the impact of unemployment on household income, counterfactual scenarios are simulated by using EUROMOD, the EU-wide microsimulation model, integrated with information from the EU-LFS data. This paper provides evidence on the differing degrees of relative and absolute resilience of the household incomes of the new unemployed. These arise from the variations in the protection offered by the national tax-benefit systems and from the personal and household circumstances of those most recently at risk of unemployment in the countries considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of tax and benefit systems on differences in income and incentives to earn income within couples in nine member countries of the European Union. The comparative perspective allows us to establish the relative effects of different policy regimes, given the characteristics of each national population, using a consistent approach and set of incidence assumptions across countries. We find variation in the extent of within-couple equalizing across countries and depending on whether the man or the woman has the larger market income. We find no evidence of tax-benefit systems reducing income differences at the expense of increasing disparities in work incentives within couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 medium-term implications of present uprating policies, which vary across parameters of the tax–benefit system. Continuing these policies for 20 years, other things staying the same, would result in a near doubling of the child poverty rate alongside a substantial gain to the public finances. At the same time, pensioners are largely protected by the earnings indexation of pensioner benefits including, in time, the basic state pension. We show how difficult it will be to meet the UK child poverty targets unless the greater inequality inherent in the current regime for uprating payments and allowances is redressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines the early effects of Prime Minister Tony Blair's administrative poverty policy measures on family incomes and child poverty rates in Great Britain. Household income effects of the principal tax and benefits changes; Impact of the policy changes on poverty rates based on a 60 percent median poverty threshold goal; Long-term effects based on a simulated reductions in poverty rates.

This paper takes the form of advice given to a hypothetical government on the construction of a tax-benefit model. The importance of the quality of the data and the care taken in its adjustment is emphasised. The choice of the unit of analysis, the requirements of the income data, methods of updating and the coverage and representativeness of the dataset as a whole is discussed. Caution in making use of estimates of behavioural change is advised. Throughout, examples drawn from the construction of TAXMOD, a model for the U.K., are used to illustrate particular points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the resilience (or otherwise) of the United Kingdom social protection system in the face of increasing unemployment. It explores the extent to which benefits protect the household incomes of unemployed people both in relative terms and in comparison with an absolute income threshold. It finds that for the people most likely to become unemployed in the first phase of the current downturn most of any protection they have comes from the earnings of other household, members. In the case of sole-earner households, the benefit system fails to maintain household income above the poverty threshold in most cases and the relative drop in income for this group is very high by international standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]