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WP201617.pdf
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The distributional impact of proposed reforms plays a central role in public debates around tax and transfer policy. We show that accounting for realistic patterns of mobility in employment, earnings and household circumstances over the life-cycle greatly affects our assessment of the distributional effects of tax and transfer reforms. We focus on three reforms modelled in the UK context: (i) changes to out-of-work versus in-work benefits, (ii) adjustments to income tax rates, and (iii) reforms to indirect taxation. In all three cases, the long-run distributional impact differs to that implied by a standard crosssection analysis in important ways.
Authors
![Jonathan Shaw](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Jonathan_Shaw.jpg?itok=G41UePIT)
Research Fellow Financial Conduct Authority
Jonathan is a Research Fellow at the IFS and a Technical Specialist in the Economics Department at the Financial Conduct Authority.
![Peter Levell](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Peter_Levell.jpg?itok=QouDiSQD)
Associate Director
Peter joined in 2009. He has published several papers on the microeconomics of household spending and labour supply decisions over the life-cycle.
![Barra Roantree](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-11/Barra%20website.jpg?itok=6oBUEvNz)
Research Fellow Trinity College Dublin
Barra is a Research Fellow at IFS and Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin.
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2016.1617
- Publisher
- The IFS
Suggested citation
P, Levell and B, Roantree and J, Shaw. (2016). Mobility and the lifetime distributional impact of tax and transfer reforms. London: The IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/mobility-and-lifetime-distributional-impact-tax-and-transfer-reforms-0 (accessed: 30 June 2024).
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