Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: We construct series of posttax income for France over the 1900–2018 period and compare them with US series. We quantify the extent of redistribution—the reduction from pretax to posttax inequality—and estimate the contribution of redistribution in explaining differences in posttax inequality. We find that differences in pretax inequality drive most of the differences in posttax inequality between France and the United States, and that changes over time in both countries are mostly due to changes in pretax inequality. We highlight that the concept of redistribution can be empirically misleading for judging how policies reduce inequalities. (JEL D31, H23, H24, H31, I38)
DOI: 10.1257/app.20220023
Institutions: Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques, Paris School of Economics, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique, ENSAE Paris, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
Awards: Middle Classes, Taxation and Democracy in a Globalized World, G2659019386, Taxation, Inequality, and Economic Behaviors in France, G3010527862, Ecole d'Economie de Paris, G6803667113, Inequality, Taxation and Redistribution: A German/French Perspective, Towards a System of Distributional National Accounts
OpenAlex ID: W4393244881