Taxation, Poverty and Income Distribution

Taxation, Poverty and Income Distribution presents new work by an international group of economists on a wide range of questions concerning income distribution over both the long and short terms.

Income taxation and related issues are addressed in the first three papers, including the measurement of progressivity when income units are treated differently and when allowance is made for non-compliance and tax evasion. The following three papers examine problems in the measurement of poverty, including hypothesis tests using poverty measures, the role of income sharing within households and the sensitivity of results to the types of equivalence scale used in adjusting household incomes. Later papers attempt to extend the income concept to cover a longer period, rather than a single year. They contrast lifetime and annual income distributions, and discuss the equity implications of pensions. The final papers are concerned respectively with the relationship between ability and income, the extent to which standard axioms used in constructing inequality measures are actually shared by individuals, and the measurement of occupational segregation.

Featuring essays by many of the leading specialists in the field, this book will be welcomed by lecturers, researchers and policy makers as an important contribution to our understanding of income distribution and its effect on the wider economy.

Edited by John Creedy, Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand