Tax-Benefit Revealed Redistributive Preferences Over Time: Ireland 1987-2005

Olivier Bargain and Claire Keane ()

No 5221, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: By inverting Saez (2002)'s model of optimal income taxation, we characterize the redistributive preferences of the Irish government between 1987 and 2005. The (marginal) social welfare function revealed by this approach is consistently comparable over time and show great stability despite profound changes in market incomes and important fiscal reforms over the period. Results are robust to numerous checks regarding data, income concepts and elasticities. A comparison with the UK shows marked differences reflecting the narrow political spectrum in Ireland compared to radical changes in British politics over the past 30 years. Some "anomalies" in the revealed social welfare function suggests introducing transfers to the working poor.

Keywords: optimal taxation; social preferences; labour supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 C81 D31 D63 H11 H21 H23 H31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2010-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - published in: Labour, 2010, 24 (s1), 141–167

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Related works:
Journal Article: Tax–Benefit‐revealed Redistributive Preferences Over Time: Ireland 1987–2005 (2010)
Working Paper: Tax-benefit revealed redistributive preferences over time: Ireland 1987-2005 (2010)
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