Taxes, Expenditures and Income Distribution in Switzerland

Bibliographic Data

ID2113133
AuthorsRobert E Leu, Rene L Frey, Brigitte Buhmann
Year1985
Volume14
Issue3
Pages341-360
Publication date1985-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279400014781
OpenAlexW2102396387
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

In this paper, we analyse the impact of government policies on income distribution and poverty in Switzerland. First, we give an overview of the Swiss welfare system and provide an estimate of the poverty problem in this country. Second, we discuss some major problems of fiscal incidence analysis. Third, we examine the impact of taxes and expenditures on income distribution in Switzerland using a budget incidence approach. The analysis is based mainly on the first nationwide representative Income and Wealth Survey 1980 conducted by the authors. The major findings are the following:1 The government budget, including the social security system, has a significant redistributive effect which is due mainly to expenditures rather than to taxation.2 Direct taxes reduce income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient; indirect taxes increase it. The net effect of all taxes is to reduce income inequality.3 The redistributive effect of social welfare expenditures is larger than that of other government expenditures

Demographic economics · Distribution (mathematics) · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Gini coefficient · Government (linguistics) · Gross income · Income distribution · Inequality · Labour economics · Poverty · Public economics · Social security · State income tax · Tax reform · Welfare · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality