Book Chapter

Part of Book Social Mobility in Developing Countries

• Income mobility
• Redistribution
• Education policy

Working Paper

Using SAMOD, a tax-benefit microsimulation model for South Africa, this paper examines the joint distributional impact of the increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate and increases in benefit amounts in 2018. Although poverty and inequality did not...

• Value-added tax
• Microsimulation
• Redistribution

Research Brief

• Top incomes
• Income inequality
• Taxation

Working Paper

This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation—including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting—and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to...

• Austerity
• Political participation
• Redistribution

Book Chapter

What is the relationship between inequality and growth? This question has occupied and fascinated social scientists for more than a century. This chapter critically reviews the recent empirical and theoretical literature on the complex interplay...

• Economic growth
• Inequality
• Redistribution

Working Paper

This paper assesses causes and consequences of fiscal redistribution in Brazil. The framework proposed allows evaluating in an integrated manner the impacts of government-sponsored actions in inequality and mean income changes on social welfare...

• Redistribution
• Fiscal redistribution
• Income inequality

Working Paper

Using a comparative frame that draws on the variation of developmental trajectories in Asia from Northeast Asia to China to Southeast Asia and to India, this paper explores the changing role of the state in these countries and the contributions that...

• State
• Democracy
• Redistribution

Journal Article

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...

• Income tax
• Poverty
• Public goods

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Fiscal Policy, State Building and Economic Development

• Tax policy
• Inequality
• Redistribution

Working Paper

This paper presents an analysis of the recent evolution of social assistance in the developing world, looking at its complex typological configuration, which has interlinked with, and partly reflects the complex demographic and epidemiological...

• Social assistance
• Social protection
• Poverty

Working Paper

The conventional justification for moving from income distribution to intergenerational mobility analysis is that the movie encompasses the snapshot and is normatively superior as the basis for assessing policy. Such a perspective underpins many an...

• Income mobility
• Redistribution
• Education policy

Research Brief

In a democratic system, taxation is a critical part of the social contract between the state and its citizens. The tax system can be used to help address the unacceptably high levels of poverty, inequality, and unemployment in South Africa. An...

• Value-added tax
• Microsimulation
• Redistribution

Book Chapter

Part of Book Asian Transformations

• State
• Democracy
• Redistribution

Working Paper

The debate on whether democracy and inequality increase the level of redistribution is ongoing. We construct a model that predicts higher probability of redistribution in democracies than autocracies through social transfers. Higher inequality leads...

• Political regimes
• Redistribution
• Inequality

Working Paper

We conduct an incentive-theoretical analysis of political economy considerations in the design of social protection programmes in developing countries to accompany economic reforms. We focus on two aspects of social protection—the provision of...

• Political economy
• Social protection
• Transfer payments

Journal Article

This study re-examines the determinants of redistribution in light of improved data and methods relative to earlier literature. In particular, we use the latest version of the UNU‐WIDER’s Income Inequality Database to have the best available...

• Cross-country analysis
• Growth
• Inequality

Research Brief

• State
• Democracy
• Redistribution

Working Paper

An influential paper by Berg et al., ‘Redistribution, inequality, and growth: new evidence’, uses the SWIID data to examine the impact of inequality and redistribution on growth in both developing and developed countries. It finds that while...

• Growth
• Redistribution
• Inequality

Journal Special Issue

This special issue presents an analysis of the recent evolution of social assistance in the developing world, looking at its complex typological configuration. It partly reflects the complex demographic and epidemiological transitions and rapid...

• Welfare
• Redistribution
• Global south

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Welfare and distributive effects of social assistance in the Global South

• Social assistance
• Social protection
• Poverty

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Welfare and distributive effects of social assistance in the Global South

• Childcare
• Elderly care
• Redistribution

Working Paper

This paper explores the distributional impact of lowering the value-added tax rate for standard-rated items in Tanzania Mainland. Using a static tax-benefit microsimulation model—TAZMOD—which is underpinned by data derived from the Household Budget...

• Value-added tax
• Microsimulation
• Redistribution

Working Paper

What is the relationship between inequality and growth? This question has occupied and fascinated social scientists for more than a century. This article critically reviews the recent empirical and theoretical literature on the complex interplay...

• Economic growth
• Inequality
• Redistribution

Working Paper

Capital spending on infrastructure presents a significant counter-cyclical tool, however contested it might be in a society as unequal as South Africa. The history of racial capitalism, race-based exclusion from economic participation, and an...

• Redistribution
• Rents
• Public infrastructure

Working Paper

One key element in the reduction of poverty and (in Latin America) inequality has been the achievement of greater fiscal equity; we analyse one key part of this process, which is the earmarking of portions of tax revenue to be spent on progressive...

• Taxation
• Public expenditure
• Political economy

Working Paper

This paper re-examines the determinants and consequences of redistribution in light of improved data and methods relative to earlier literature. In particular, we use the latest version of the UNU-WIDER’s Income Inequality Database to have the best...

• Cross-country analysis
• Growth
• Inequality

Working Paper

In this paper, we analyse two specific policies that make up the National Care System, a social policy being implemented in Uruguay. Through the calibration of a static tax benefit model, we estimate the distributive impact of the expansion of...

• Childcare
• Elderly care
• Redistribution

Journal Article

Many European countries introduced austerity policies to control rising debt in the wake of the Great Recession of the late 2000s. Recent research suggests that austerity fuelled political polarization, instability, and populism in Europe. However...

• Austerity
• Political participation
• Redistribution

Working Paper

Nowadays, all policy makers must engage with direct and indirect carbon pricing issues. However, the implications of different types of tools and methods to price carbon and support decarbonization deserve further attention in view of their...

• Carbon pricing
• Carbon tax
• Revenue