Fiscal policy and dimensions of inequality in South Africa: A time-varying coefficient approach

IF 1.6 4区经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS

SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS Pub Date : 2024-01-24 DOI:10.1111/saje.12369

Jeanne Terblanche, Dawie van Lill, Hylton Hollander

引用次数: 0

Abstract

South Africa continues to face high inequality levels despite its progressive tax and extensive social protection systems. We compare the dynamic impact of fiscal policy on the distribution of incomes, wages and wealth in South Africa from 1993 to 2019. For this purpose, we use a time-varying parameter vector autoregression to estimate the impact of direct tax revenue and total transfer spending on three distinct inequality datasets. The analysis of various dimensions of inequality is the main contribution of the paper as the literature typically focuses on income inequality. A second contribution lies in the incorporation of time-varying effects, which enables the analysis of the changing relationship between fiscal policy and inequality. The results suggest that this relationship is indeed time-varying and that the impact of direct taxes and transfers differs markedly across the inequality dimensions, both in terms of magnitude and sign. Overall, we find that both transfers and direct taxes have not significantly reduced income, wage or wealth inequality in South Africa.

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南非的财政政策和不平等问题：时变系数法

尽管南非实行累进税制和广泛的社会保障制度，但仍面临着严重的不平等问题。我们比较了 1993 年至 2019 年财政政策对南非收入、工资和财富分配的动态影响。为此，我们使用时变参数向量自回归来估计直接税收和转移支出总额对三个不同的不平等数据集的影响。本文的主要贡献在于分析了不平等的各个层面，因为文献通常只关注收入不平等。第二个贡献在于纳入了时变效应，从而能够分析财政政策与不平等之间不断变化的关系。结果表明，这种关系确实是时变的，而且直接税和转移支付对不同不平等维度的影响在幅度和符号上都存在明显差异。总体而言，我们发现转移支付和直接税并没有显著减少南非的收入、工资或财富不平等。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The South African Journal of Economics (SAJE) has a long and distinguished history, ranking amongst the oldest generalist journals in economics. In terms of editorial focus, the journal remains a generalist journal covering all fields in economics, but with a particular focus on developmental and African contexts. Toward this end, the editorial policy of the SAJE emphasizes scholarly work on developing countries, with African and Southern African development challenges receiving particular attention. While the SAJE remains a generalist journal, it encourages empirical work on developing and African economies. Importantly the focus is on both theoretical developments and methodological innovations that reflect developing country and African contexts and the policy challenges they pose. The objective of the journal is to be the premier vehicle for the publication of the most innovative work on development country and particularly African economic problems. It aims to be the target journal of choice not only for scholars located in Southern Africa, but of any scholar interested in the analysis of development challenges and their African applications. Clear theoretical foundations to work published should be a hallmark of the journal, and innovation in both theory and empirics appropriate to developing country and the African contexts are encouraged. In terms of submissions, the journal invites submissions primarily of original research articles, as well as survey articles and book reviews relevant to its context. In the case of both survey articles and book reviews, authors should note that a key minimum requirement is a critical reflection on the broader context of the existing literature.