The Redistributive Effects of Taxation in the Report of the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth

Income Redistribution Through Taxes and Transfers in Britain

“…The purpose of the present paper has been to produce a model of direct and indirect taxcs paid, and income transfers received, by individuals, which approximates the main features of the British system. No attempt has been made to allow for differences between households in size and composition of l4 A similar argument was made by Levitt (1976), when criticking studies of the "regressive" effect of old style purchase taxes. It is also perhaps worth noting that in a theoretical analysis which extends some of the results of Atkinson and Stiglitz (1980) on direct and indirect taxes, Sah (1983) has argued that very little redistribution is possible through indirect taxation.…”