Facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending.
Income distribution, poverty and inequality.
Analysing government fiscal forecasts and tax and spending.
Analysis of the fiscal choices an independent Scotland would face.
Case studies that give a flavour of the areas where IFS research has an impact on society.
Reforming the tax system for the 21st century.
A peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing articles by academics and practitioners.
|
Type: Journal Articles Authors: Carlo V. Fiorio ISSN: Print 0143-5671 Online: 1475-5890
Published in: Fiscal Studies, Vol. 29, No.4, December 2008
Volume, issue, pages: Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 499 - 522
JEL classification: H24, D31, C14
Static tax-benefit microsimulation models (MSMs) are widely used and well-regarded tools for public policy analysis, but it is essential to use them very carefully. This paper focuses on the analysis of MSM output, suggesting the use of non-parametric methods as a useful, informative and relatively straightforward complement to detect effects not always captured by measures often used to present MSM results.
Non-parametric methods are used here to analyse the output of an MSM applied to the 1998 Italian personal income tax reform, the main change in which concerned the tax schedule: the first tax rate was increased from 10 per cent to 18.5 per cent and the top one was reduced by 4.5 percentage points. Non-parametric methods highlight that the effects of this reform were very different for different types of households, with low-income pensioner households among the main losers. Results are checked for robustness by standard statistical methods and compared with empirical results obtainable using quintile histograms. Search |

