Belgium: Selected Issues

International Monetary Fund

No 2001/045, IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper provides a number of complementary estimates of potential output and the output gap—variables that cannot be observed directly. After a substantial increase in the tax wedge in the 1970s and the 1980s, which has been widely thought to have been partly responsible for the sharp rise in unemployment rates, the Belgian authorities instituted a policy of reduction in employers' social security contributions. The reforms will reverse the increase in average income tax rates during the 1990s.

Keywords: ISCR; CR; NAIRU; estimate; unemployment gap; output gap estimate; production-function estimate; SSC cut; NAIRU variable; SSC conditional; Potential output; Social security contributions; Employment; Income and capital gains taxes; Income tax systems; Global; Western Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2001-03-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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