Downloads
WP201617.pdf
PDF | 761.6 KB
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
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.
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.
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: 23 April 2024).
More from IFS
Understand this issue
Spring Budget 2024: What you need to know
7 March 2024
Spring Budget 2024: the Chancellor’s options
A mess has been made of Child Benefit, and the clear-up operation may not be easy
29 March 2024
Policy analysis
4.2 million working-age people now claiming health-related benefits, could rise by 30% by the end of the decade
19 April 2024
Recent trends in and the outlook for health-related benefits
19 April 2024
Recent trends in public sector pay
26 March 2024
Academic research
Labour market inequality and the changing life cycle profile of male and female wages
15 April 2024
Interpreting cohort profiles of lifecycle earnings volatility
15 April 2024
There and back again: women’s marginal commuting costs
2 April 2024