Papers by Gerlinde Verbist
The main focus of this paper is an empirical analysis of the various effects of the Belgian tax c... more The main focus of this paper is an empirical analysis of the various effects of the Belgian tax credit for low pay incomes, compared to the effects of its counterparts in the UK and the US. These tax credits have been developed to (1) make work more attractive than benefit dependency, and (2) to improve the welfare position of families with a low income from work, the so-called working poor. Using a standard simulation model we evaluate the Belgian tax credit on its effects on work incentives and on poverty, thereby comparing it with the introduction of the American EITC and the British WTC in a Belgian context.
Labour Market Activation Policies: A Comparison of the Use of Tax Credits in Belgium, the UK and the US
The Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies, 2007
... approach of reducing employees' contributions has its limits, due to the insurance princ... more ... approach of reducing employees' contributions has its limits, due to the insurance principle and the lack of alternative financing, increasing net wages for ... However, this practical disadvantage could have been solved by integrating the tax credit into the monthly withholding tax. ...
Nog altijd zijn er obstakels. Het effect van financiële tegemoetkomingen op onderwijsdeelname in Vlaanderen
Non-cash benefits from social housing in Europe: a comparative perspective
The Distribution Effects of Taxes on Pensions and Unemployment Benefits in the EU-15
Research in Labor Economics, 2006
... More in particular, I am very grateful to Holly Sutherland, Christine Lietz, Daniela Mantovan... more ... More in particular, I am very grateful to Holly Sutherland, Christine Lietz, Daniela Mantovani, Herwig Immervoll, Fre´de´ric Berger, Tim Callan, Klaas de Vos, Bengt Eklind, Horacio Levy, Panos Tsakloglou and Heikki Viitamaki for support and many useful remarks in the process ...
Titmuss already emphasised in the fifties that the Welfare State is not only shaped by social ser... more Titmuss already emphasised in the fifties that the Welfare State is not only shaped by social services and benefits, but also by the tax system, thereby introducing the term 'fiscal welfare'. Taxes affect social policy, as they influence the income distribution; more specifically they provide concessions for certain socially recognised needs, e.g. for the presence of children, and thus they fulfil the same aim as social benefits. In this paper we present an international comparison of the redistributive effect of personal income taxes in the countries of the EU and the OECD. We also focus on Belgium and its experience with the recent tax reform. In a first part we discuss the links between taxes and social policy. Next, we present the most important measures of the redistributive effect of taxes. In the third section we compare the redistributive effect of personal income taxes for various OECD countries. We present the contribution of progressivity and average tax rate to t...
The Redistributive Capacity of Services in the European Union
How Successful Are European Welfare States?, 2013
The Policy Response
Analytical and Comparative Perspectives, 2014
Child Poverty: What Can Social Spending Explain in Europe?
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT This study assesses the role of social spending in relation to child poverty in European... more ABSTRACT This study assesses the role of social spending in relation to child poverty in European welfare states. Using macro-level panel data from EU SILC 2005-2012, we analyze the effect of the size of social spending and the effect of how those benefits are targeted. We separately estimate the effect of pension benefits on child poverty, as the prevalence of multigenerational families makes them a relevant income source for families with children, especially in Southern and Eastern European welfare states. Estimating a GLS model including time and country fixed effects and a large set of country characteristics, we find that both cash transfers and pensions substantially reduce child poverty. Increased pro-poorness also leads to lower poverty rates, but the effect sizes are more modest by comparison, and strongly depend on how targeting is defined. The estimates for social spending change little across various model specifications and we also obtain similar estimates when we use regional variation within countries to assess the same effects. Where social spending explains a large share of variation in poverty within countries over time, the explanatory power with respect to cross-sectional variation in poverty rates is limited. The complete model does explain a large share of cross-sectional disparities in poverty across European welfare states, but a sizable unexplained variation remains. This unexplained disparity likely relates to factors that are more invariable over time.
A bird’s eye view on 20 years of tax-benefit reforms in Belgium
Services assurés par les pouvoirs publics et distribution des ressources économiques des ménages
Revue Economique De L Ocde, Mar 22, 2010
La plupart des études portant sur les inégalités de revenu, au sein d'un pays ou au niveau i... more La plupart des études portant sur les inégalités de revenu, au sein d'un pays ou au niveau international, sont basées sur le concept de revenu monétaire des ménages. Ce choix n'est pas sans conséquences. En effet, plusieurs facteurs autres que le revenu contribuent au bien-...
In this paper we analyse how income taxation interferes with the logic and aims of the social sec... more In this paper we analyse how income taxation interferes with the logic and aims of the social security system. We investigate the distributional effects of the tax treatment of social benefits, and more specifically of old age pensions and unemployment benefits. We present a brief overview of the different ways of levying taxes on replacement incomes. We measure the distributional effects of these different tax treatments by comparing gross and net replacement incomes over income deciles. By calculating Gini and Kakwani indices, we also estimate the inequality reduction and the progressivity characteristics of taxes on replacement incomes. Having summarised the link between taxes and replacement incomes, as well as their distributional effects, we then try to distinguish if there is a link between the tax treatment of replacement incomes and the type of welfare state.
Social redistribution in federalized Belgium
Since some years Belgium is witnessing a lively debate with respect to immigration policies. Some... more Since some years Belgium is witnessing a lively debate with respect to immigration policies. Some see immigration as one of the solutions to maintain the sustainability of the welfare state in the light of an ageing society, whereas others see it as a threat.
GINI DP 88: The redistributive effect and progressivity of taxes revisited: An International Comparison across the European Union
As pointed out by the Expert Group on Household Income Statistics (Canberra Group, 2001), the way... more As pointed out by the Expert Group on Household Income Statistics (Canberra Group, 2001), the way in which is dealt with the income value of home ownership is crucial for distribution analyses. Home-ownership can have a large impact on a household’s expenditure structure. Because of the large proportion of home-owners in Belgium, a serious attempt to estimate the economic well-being
The differential dependence of migrants on welfare entitlements in Belgium and Ireland
Since 1974 there is an official labour immigration stop in Belgium. For three decades immigration... more Since 1974 there is an official labour immigration stop in Belgium. For three decades immigration policies have been a rather uncoordinated domain, suffering from a dramatic lack of data and supporting research. Since 2007 the newly created Ministry of Migration tries to set up a comprehensive immigration policy. This paper wants to contribute to the migration debate by providing an estimate of the fiscal effects of migration. We try to examine the contribution to and dependency on welfare state provisions by immigrants. We estimate for each individual his/her dependency on (i.e. costs) and contribution to (i.e. the benefits) the Belgian system of social security. We compare these findings with the situation of natives in Belgium. To analyze these issues we use the data of EU-SILC. We will handle these questions for various categories of immigrants, with the current limits of the survey. We put the Belgian situation in perspective by comparing it with a new immigration country, Irel...
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Papers by Gerlinde Verbist