Upcoming Seminar on ‘In Search of a Paradox of Redistribution: An Analysis of Fiscal Redistribution in High-income Countries’
LIS and LISER invite you for a hybrid session of the (LIS)^2ER Friday seminar on In Search of a Paradox of Redistribution: An Analysis of Fiscal Redistribution in High-income Countries
In person room: MSH LIS-LISER corner 5th floor (Maison des Sciences Humaines).
Friday 03 November at 11h00 (UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
The following presentation is scheduled:
Speaker: Dave Coady
Title: In Search of a Paradox of Redistribution: An Analysis of Fiscal Redistribution in High-income Countries
Abstract:
The last decade has seen a sharp increase in interest in the possible existence of a Paradox of Redistribution (PoR) whereby more narrow targeting of social transfers aimed at increasing their redistributive (poverty) impact has the perverse effect of increasing poverty over the medium term due to decreasing public support for such narrowly targeted spending. However, the empirical support for the existence of a PoR has been mixed. We revisit this issue using harmonized LIS household survey data covering recent decades by examining how the magnitude of fiscal redistribution (FR) from transfers varies across high-income countries and over time within these countries. Our analysis is embedded in the standard social welfare framework, which allows for a transparent and integrated evaluation of FR including by making explicit the value judgements necessarily inherent in such analyses. Our results support recent findings that FR has increased over the last four decades, although we do not find support for some recent results that FR decreased since 1995. While we find strong support for a PoR for social insurance transfers (dominated by pension transfers), we find little support in the context of social assistance transfers. We argue that, especially in the context of social assistance, more detailed country-specific studies of the political and economic dynamics in countries are needed to adequately determine the existence or otherwise of a PoR. Our high-level analysis can, however, help to identify possible candidates for such country case studies.
Participation
In person room: MSH LIS-LISER corner 5th floor (Maison des Sciences Humaines).
Please join us on Zoom meetings by following the link below
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83022484736
Meeting ID: 830 2248 4736