Indirect Taxes and Social Policy: Distributional Impact of Alternative Financing of Social Security

25 Pages Posted: 26 Oct 2007

See all articles by André Decoster

André Decoster

Department of Economics KU Leuven

Kris De Swerdt

KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB)

Gerlinde Verbist

University of Antwerp

Date Written: March 2007

Abstract

The role of indirect taxes in social policy is investigated by

1) comparing the distributional pattern of indirect taxes with the one of personal income taxes and social security contributions;

2) calculating the indirect tax liabilities for recipients of social benefits;

3) assessing the distributional impact of shifting the financing of social security from contributions to indirect taxes. For this purpose we combine the data of the Household Budget Survey and the Socio-Economic Panel, as well as two microsimulation models, namely ASTER (for the calculation of indirect taxes) and MISIM (for the calculation of personal income taxes and social contributions).

Suggested Citation

Decoster, André and De Swerdt, Kris and Verbist, Gerlinde, Indirect Taxes and Social Policy: Distributional Impact of Alternative Financing of Social Security (March 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1024683 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1024683

André Decoster

Department of Economics KU Leuven ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.andredecoster.be

Kris De Swerdt

KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FEB) ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

Gerlinde Verbist (Contact Author)

University of Antwerp ( email )

Prinsstraat 13
Antwerp, 2000
Belgium

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