How taxes and benefits redistribute income and affect work incentives: a lifecycle perspective

Personal taxes and benefits affect peoples' incentives to work and invest over their lifecourse by altering income-age profiles, insuring people against adversities, and changing the returns to human capital. But much research that investigates the impact of taxes and benefits on the income distribution or work incentives ignores these dynamic considerations.

At this free half-day event, IFS researchers Mike Brewer, Monica Costa Dias and Jonathan Shaw will present findings from a project that set out to take a lifetime perspective on how taxes and benefits redistribute income and affect work incentives. The research addresses the following questions: how do financial incentives to work change over the lifecourse? how is the tax burden shared over the population and over the lifecourse? what are the impacts of changes in taxes and benefits on the distribution of lifetime income, incentives to work and invest in human capital?

Other speakers at the event will include Professor Daniel Waldenstrom (Uppsala), who has written about the extent to which the income tax system in Sweden redistributes between people with different lifetime incomes, Jonathan Athow (HM Revenue and Customs), who will talk about how HMRC is incorporating behavioural change and dynamic considerations in its modelling of tax policy, and James Richardson, chief microeconomist at HM Treasury.

Registration will take place from 9.30am and the event will last from 10am to 1pm, followed by lunch. There is no charge, but delegates are asked to register in advance.