The Impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay: An Overview

Nora Lustig, Florencia Amábile, Marisa Bucheli, George Gray Molina (), Sean Higgins (), Miguel Jaramillo, Wilson Jimenez Pozo, Veroniza Paz Arauco (), Claudiney Pereira, Carola Pessino, Maximo Rossi, John Scott and Ernesto Yanez Aguilar ()
Additional contact information
George Gray Molina: Chief Economist for UNDP-Latin America and the Caribbean, New York, New York
Sean Higgins: Department of Economics, Tulane University
John Scott: CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas), Mexico and,Consejero Académico, CONEVAL (Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social), Mexico

No 1316, Working Papers from Tulane University, Department of Economics

Abstract: How much redistribution and poverty reduction is being accomplished in Latin America through social spending, subsidies, and taxes? Standard fiscal incidence analyses applied to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay using a comparable methodology yields the following results. Direct taxes and cash transfers reduce inequality and poverty by nontrivial amounts in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay but less so in Bolivia, Mexico, and Peru. While direct taxes are progressive, the redistributive impact is small because direct taxes as a share of GDP are generally low. Cash transfers are quite progressive in absolute terms, except in Bolivia where programs are not targeted to the poor. In Bolivia and Brazil, indirect taxes more than offset the poverty-reducing impact of cash transfers. When one includes the in-kind transfers in education and health, valued at government costs, they reduce inequality in all countries by considerably more than cash transfers, reflecting their relative size.

Keywords: fiscal incidence; inequality; poverty; taxes; social spending; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H22 I3 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-pub
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tul:wpaper:1316

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