Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-08-24DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12306
Michaël Sicsic
{"title":"Does labour income react more to income tax or means-tested benefits reforms?","authors":"Michaël Sicsic","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12306","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12306","url":null,"abstract":"<p>I provide estimates of compensated elasticities of labour income with respect to the marginal net-of-tax rate on the 2006–15 period for France, exploiting not only income tax reforms but also means-tested benefits reforms. I use semi-parametric graphical evidence and a classic two-stage least-squares estimation applied to a rich data set including both financial and socio-demographic variables. I obtain an estimated compensated elasticity on the intensive margin around 0.2–0.3 in response to income tax reforms, and around 0.1 in response to in-work benefit reforms, while I found no statistically significant response to family allowance reforms. I show that the difference between elasticities contradicts the theoretical prediction of the classical labour supply model. These asymmetric responses are very robust to a large number of robustness checks. The most plausible explanation is that income tax reforms are more salient and better perceived than benefit reforms. I also highlight an average compensated elasticity of 0.1 for all transfers on the intensive margin and provide heterogeneous elasticities depending on types of people, which could be used for optimal tax analyses.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"291-319"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48238467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12304
{"title":"Editorial announcement","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12304","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Editors are pleased to welcome Jonathan Colmer and Egbert Jongen to join the Board of Associate Editors at <i>Fiscal Studies</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"201"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12304","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109170753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12305
David Madden
{"title":"The socio-economic gradient of cognitive test scores: evidence from two cohorts of Irish children","authors":"David Madden","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12305","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12305","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There is a well-established socio-economic gradient in child cognitive test scores. This gradient emerges at early ages, with some evidence that it can widen as children age. We investigate this phenomenon with two longitudinal cohorts of Irish children who take such tests at ages ranging from 9 months to 17 years, using maternal education and equivalised income as our measure of socio-economic resources. The gradient is observed from the age of 3 with tentative evidence that it widens as children get older. We have evidence on a wide range of tests and there is some evidence that the gradient is slightly stronger for tests involving crystalised as opposed to fluid intelligence. Exploiting the longitudinal nature of the data, we also investigate mobility across the distribution of test scores, with some evidence that such mobility is less among poorer children, which raises the disturbing possibility that such children could become trapped in low achievement.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"265-290"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12305","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46073607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-04-06DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12299
Brian Nolan, Juan C. Palomino, Philippe Van Kerm, Salvatore Morelli
{"title":"Intergenerational wealth transfers in Great Britain from the Wealth and Assets Survey in comparative perspective","authors":"Brian Nolan, Juan C. Palomino, Philippe Van Kerm, Salvatore Morelli","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12299","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12299","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Wealth surveys that collect information on intergenerational transfers provide new scope for comparative study of those transfers and their relationship with wealth across rich countries. However, this is problematic in the case of Great Britain, due to specific features of the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS), the central source of survey-based household wealth data, in particular the extent of missing information in its first wave. This has severely constrained efforts to investigate patterns of wealth transfer in Great Britain in comparative perspective. In this paper, we set out these issues and present ways of dealing with them. On this basis, we then examine the main similarities and differences in patterns of intergenerational transmission of wealth between Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States. Our findings reveal common features across these countries as well as some important respects in which Great Britain was distinctive, though less of an outlier than the US. About 35 per cent of British households reported receiving an intergenerational wealth transfer at some point, similar to most of the comparator countries but much higher than the US. We conclude by setting out how WAS can be enhanced to address these issues at source, proposals with which the Office for National Statistics is seriously engaged.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"179-199"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12299","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48446085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The decline of home-cooked food","authors":"Rachel Griffith, Wenchao (Michelle) Jin, Valérie Lechene","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12298","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The share of home-cooked food in the diet of UK households declined from the 1980s. This was contemporaneous with a <i>decline</i> in the market price of ingredients for home cooking relative to ready-to-eat foods. We consider a simple model of food consumption and time use that captures the key driving forces behind these apparently conflicting trends. We show that observed behaviour can be rationalised by the fact that the shadow price of home-cooked food, which accounts for the fact that cooking takes time, has risen relative to the price of ready-to-eat food, due to the increase in the market value of time of secondary earners. We discuss the implications for policies that aim to encourage healthier diets.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"105-120"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12298","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109158562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-03-22DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12296
{"title":"Editorial announcement","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12296","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As of March 2022, Ingvild Almås, Timothy Beatty, John Creedy, Mariacristina De Nardi, Guyonne Kalb, Clare Leaver and Helen Simpson have stepped down from the Editorial Board of <i>Fiscal Studies</i>. James Cloyne, Monica Costa Dias, Matthias Parey and James Ziliak would like to thank them for their enormous contributions to the journal. The Editors are pleased to welcome Anne Brockmeyer, Eric French, Sonya Krutikova, Peter Levell, Eric Ohrn, Emma Tominey and Mazhar Waseem to join the Board of Associate Editors at <i>Fiscal Studies</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 1","pages":"97"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12296","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109173146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-03-22DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12297
{"title":"Editorial announcement","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12297","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We are pleased to welcome the two new managing editors of <i>Fiscal Studies</i>, James Banks (Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester, Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Co-Principal Investigator of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing) and Kimberley Scharf (Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Birmingham and Director of the NAO – University of Birmingham Tax Centre).</p><p>Professor Banks's research focuses on the empirical modelling of individual economic behaviour over the life cycle, with particular focus on the dynamics of consumption, savings and retirement; and broad issues on the economics of ageing, including the study of health and cognitive functioning, and their association with labour market and broader socio-economic status. Professor Scharf's research interests include the economics of charitable giving, fundraising and philanthropy; taxation and public finance; international taxation; and political economy.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 1","pages":"99"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12297","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109173147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-03-15DOI: 10.1920/wp.ifs.2022.1222
Thomas Wernham, R. Joyce, Jonathan Cribb
{"title":"Twenty-five years of income inequality in Britain: the role of wages, household earnings and redistribution","authors":"Thomas Wernham, R. Joyce, Jonathan Cribb","doi":"10.1920/wp.ifs.2022.1222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1920/wp.ifs.2022.1222","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45454735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-02-20DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12295
Michael Christl, Silvia De Poli, Janos Varga
{"title":"Reducing the income tax burden for households with children: an assessment of the child tax credit reform in Austria","authors":"Michael Christl, Silvia De Poli, Janos Varga","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12295","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12295","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we analyse the impact of the implementation of a child tax credit in Austria in 2018. We combine microsimulation techniques, labour supply modelling and dynamic general equilibrium modelling to make an <i>ex ante</i> evaluation of the reform, accounting also for behavioural responses of individuals. We show that although the macroeconomic effect of the Austrian reform is expected to be relatively small, accounting for feedback effects on a micro-level is very important, especially when analysing socioeconomic and policy-relevant indicators, such as poverty and inequality. When focusing on the distributional implications and the impact on poverty, our analysis highlights that the first-round effects of the child tax credit substantially underestimate the increase in household income for households with children. Additionally, we find that when accounting for second-round effects, the loss in tax revenues is partly offset. The estimated self-financing effect of the reform is estimated to be about 13 per cent. Our results also indicate that part of the associated tax decrease can be potentially captured by the employer, meaning that gross wages are expected to fall slightly. Therefore, in the medium term, some households without children might suffer a small reduction in their disposable income. Overall, our analysis highlights the importance of accounting for second-round effects when analysing tax reforms <i>ex ante</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"151-177"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12295","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44283998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-02-16DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12294
Martin Biewen, Miriam Sturm
{"title":"Why a labour market boom does not necessarily bring down inequality: putting together Germany's inequality puzzle","authors":"Martin Biewen, Miriam Sturm","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12294","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12294","url":null,"abstract":"<p>After an economically tough start to the new millennium, Germany experienced an unprecedented employment boom after 2005, only stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Persistently high levels of inequality despite a booming labour market and drastically falling unemployment rates constituted a puzzle, suggesting either that the German job miracle mainly benefitted individuals in the mid- or high-income range or that other developments offset the effects of the drastically improved labour market conditions. The present paper solves this puzzle by breaking down the observed changes in the distribution of disposable incomes between 2005–06 and 2015–16 into the contributions of eight different factors, one of them being the employment boom. Our results suggest that, while the latter did have an equalising impact, it was partially offset by the disequalising impact of other factors, and substantially dampened by the transfer system. Our results point to a strong role of the German transfer system as a distributional stabiliser implying that, if the COVID-19 shock were to persistently reverse all the employment gains that occurred during the boom, this would only have a moderately disequalising effect on the distribution of net incomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"121-149"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12294","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45726722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}