The mitigating role of tax and benefit rescue packages for poverty and inequality in Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Jesse Lastunen, Pia Rattenhuber, Kwabena Adu-Ababio, Katrin Gasior, H. Xavier Jara, Maria Jouste, David McLennan, Enrico Nichelatti, Rodrigo Oliveira, Jukka Pirttilä, Matteo Richiardi and Gemma Wright

No wp-2021-148, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: This paper analyses the distributional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related tax-benefit measures in 2020 in a cross-country comparative perspective for five African countries: Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. We first estimate the impact of the crisis on disposable incomes, how effects vary across the income distribution, and in how far tax-benefit policies stabilized earnings losses. We then evaluate the impact on income-based poverty and inequality and the contribution of discretionary tax-benefit policies in alleviating the shock.

Keywords: COVID-19; Income distribution; Poverty; Inequality; Africa; Automatic stabilizers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pub
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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