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This paper presents a novel technique to measure and compare the redistributive capacity of observed tax (or transfer) policies. The technique is based on income distribution simulations and controls for differences in pre-tax income distributions. It assumes that the only information on the pre-tax distribution available in each country-year is the Gini coefficient and the mean (GDP per capita). We illustrate the technique with an application to the personal income tax, using a dataset of 108 countries over the 2007-2018 period.

Suriname --- Macroeconomics --- Economics: General --- Personal Finance -Taxation --- Taxation --- Foreign Exchange --- Informal Economy --- Underground Econom --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies --- Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Economics of specific sectors --- Public finance & taxation --- Income distribution --- National accounts --- Income --- Personal income tax --- Taxes --- Progressive taxation --- Tax policy --- Income inequality --- Currency crises --- Informal sector --- Economics --- Income tax --- Tax administration and procedure

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Personal Income Tax (PIT) is one of the key sources of revenues in Advanced Economies (AEs) but plays a much more limited role in Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs) and Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), both in terms of revenue and redistributive impact. Notwithstanding, this paper shows that LIDCs and EMEs increased their PIT-to-GDP revenue by 110 and 48 percent, respectively, during the 1990-2019 period, a marked improvement in the PIT revenue performance. We find that this rise was driven primarily by economic developments and to a lesser extent by changes in the design of PIT systems. We also find that LIDCs that improved their tax-to-GDP ratios relied on a broader set of tax instruments and not exclusively on the PIT, suggesting that a successful revenue mobilization strategy of developing countries requires a comprehensive approach covering a wider range of taxes. Finally, using a newly assembled dataset of PIT characteristics of 157 countries over the 2006-2018 period, we estimate a novel redistribution index of the PIT in LIDCs. We show that the contribution of the PIT to inequality reductions has been significant.

Macroeconomics --- Economics: General --- Personal Finance -Taxation --- Public Finance --- Taxation --- Corporate Taxation --- Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies --- Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement --- Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General --- Business Taxes and Subsidies --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Economics of specific sectors --- Public finance & taxation --- Corporate & business tax --- Personal income tax --- Taxes --- Revenue administration --- Income tax systems --- Corporate income tax --- Income and capital gains taxes --- Currency crises --- Informal sector --- Economics --- Income tax --- Revenue --- Corporations --- United States

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Personal Income Tax (PIT) is one of the key sources of revenues in Advanced Economies (AEs) but plays a much more limited role in Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs) and Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), both in terms of revenue and redistributive impact. Notwithstanding, this paper shows that LIDCs and EMEs increased their PIT-to-GDP revenue by 110 and 48 percent, respectively, during the 1990-2019 period, a marked improvement in the PIT revenue performance. We find that this rise was driven primarily by economic developments and to a lesser extent by changes in the design of PIT systems. We also find that LIDCs that improved their tax-to-GDP ratios relied on a broader set of tax instruments and not exclusively on the PIT, suggesting that a successful revenue mobilization strategy of developing countries requires a comprehensive approach covering a wider range of taxes. Finally, using a newly assembled dataset of PIT characteristics of 157 countries over the 2006-2018 period, we estimate a novel redistribution index of the PIT in LIDCs. We show that the contribution of the PIT to inequality reductions has been significant.

United States --- Macroeconomics --- Economics: General --- Personal Finance -Taxation --- Public Finance --- Taxation --- Corporate Taxation --- Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies --- Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement --- Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General --- Business Taxes and Subsidies --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Economics of specific sectors --- Public finance & taxation --- Corporate & business tax --- Personal income tax --- Taxes --- Revenue administration --- Income tax systems --- Corporate income tax --- Income and capital gains taxes --- Currency crises --- Informal sector --- Economics --- Income tax --- Revenue --- Corporations

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This paper examines whether infrastructure investment has contributed to East Asia's economic growth using both a growth accounting framework and cross-country regressions. For most of the variables used, both the growth accounting exercise and cross-country regressions fail to find a significant link between infrastructure, productivity and growth. These conclusions contrast strongly with previous studies finding positive and significant effect for all infrastructure variables in the context of a production function study. This leads us to conclude that results from studies using macro-level data should be considered with extreme caution. The Authors suggest that infrastructure investment may have had the primary function of relieving constraints and bottlenecks as they arose, as opposed to directly encouraging growth.

Banks and Banking Reform --- Bottlenecks --- Capital investment --- Economic Theory and Research --- Economies of scale --- Externalities --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Highway --- Infrastructure investment --- Infrastructure policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Non Bank Financial Institutions --- Poverty Reduction --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Road --- Roads --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning

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This paper examines how labor taxation (personal income taxes and social security contributions) in the Western Balkan contributes to labor market outcomes such as high informality and a significant gender gap in participation rates. We find that limited progressivity combined with high tax wedge on low incomes poses a major twin equity-efficiency challenge in the region, resulting in low redistributive capacity and inadequate incentives to enter the job market. Policy implications are discussed with a view to alleviating the excessively high tax wedges on low incomes, while improving progressivity of income taxation.

Macroeconomics --- Economics: General --- Taxation --- Labor --- Personal Finance -Taxation --- Corporate Taxation --- Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies --- Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Household --- Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General --- Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: General --- Demand and Supply of Labor: General --- Business Taxes and Subsidies --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Economics of specific sectors --- Welfare & benefit systems --- Public finance & taxation --- Labour --- income economics --- Corporate & business tax --- Labor taxes --- Taxes --- Personal income tax --- Tax wedge --- Tax policy --- Wages --- Labor markets --- Currency crises --- Informal sector --- Economics --- Income tax --- Tax administration and procedure --- Labor market --- Social security --- North Macedonia, Republic of