The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

In this paper, we describe South Africa's value added tax (VAT), showing that (1) the VAT is mildly regressive and (2) it is an effective source of government revenue, compared to other tax instruments in South Africa. We evaluate the VAT in the context of other distortions in the economy by computing the marginal cost of funds-the effect of raising government revenue by increasing the VAT rates on household welfare. Then we evaluate alternative, revenue-neutral tax systems in which we reduce the VAT and raise income taxes. For the analysis, we use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with detailed specification of South Africa's tax system. Households are disaggregated into income deciles. We demonstrate that alternative tax structures can benefit low-income households without placing excess burdens on high-income households.

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

We use a general equilibrium model to analyse the employment effects and fiscal cost of a wage subsidy in South Africa. We capture the structural characteristics of the labour market with several labour categories and substitution possibilities, linking the economy-wide results to a micro-simulation model with occupational choice probabilities to investigate the poverty and distributional consequences. The employment impact depends greatly on the elasticities of substitution of factors of production, being very minimal if unskilled and skilled labour are complements in production. The impact is improved by supporting policies, but the gains remain modest if the labour market is rigid.

Zero-rating food is considered to alleviate poverty of poor households who spend the largest proportion of their income on food. However, this will result in a loss of revenue for government. A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is used to analyze the combined effects on zerorating food and using alternative revenue sources to compensate for the loss in revenue. To prohibit excessively high increases in the statutory VAT rates of business and financial services, increasing direct taxes or increasing VAT to 16 per cent, is investigated. Increasing direct taxes is the most successful option when creating a more progressive tax structure, and still generating a positive impact on GDP. The results indicate that zero-rating food combined with a proportional percentage increase in direct taxes can improve the welfare of poor households.