Tax - benefit revealed redistributive preferences over time : Ireland 1987 - 2005
نویسنده
چکیده
By inverting Saez (2002)s model of optimal income taxation, we characterize the redistributive preferences of the Irish government between 1987 and 2005. The (marginal) social welfare function revealed by this approach is consistently comparable over time and show great stability despite profound changes in market incomes and important scal reforms over the period. Results are robust to numerous checks regarding data, income concepts and elasticities. A comparison with the UK shows marked di¤erences reecting the narrow political spectrum in Ireland compared to radical changes in British politics over the past 30 years. Some "anomalies" in the revealed social welfare function suggests introducing transfers to the working poor. Key Words : social preferences, optimal taxation, labour supply. JEL Classi cation : C63; C81; D31; D63; H11; H21; H23; H31 Acknowledgement: Bargain is a¢ liated to University College Dublin (UCD), IZA, the Geary Institute, CHILD and the ESRI. Keane is a¢ liated to UCD and the ESRI. We are grateful to the Irish Research Council Human and Social Sciences for nancial support, to François Bourguignon, Tim Callan and John Walsh for advices. Empirical analyses performed in this study rely on the Housing Budget Survey, the Living in Ireland Survey and the SILC data provided by the CSO; the FES and EFS provided by the ONS through the Data Archive. The SWITCH model has been used with the authorization of the ESRI. Usual disclaimers apply. Correspondence to: Olivier Bargain, UCD, Newman Building, Dublin 4, Ireland. Phone: +35317168357. Email: [email protected]
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