Affiliation:
1. Victoria University of Wellington Wellington New Zealand
2. Independent Scholar Chennai India
Abstract
AbstractThis paper proposes a measure of ‘equitability of taxation’, in the context of progressivity and the income tax. By postulating specifications of ‘extreme equitability’ and ‘extreme inequitability’ of a tax system, the paper advances a measure of tax equitability as the normalised area distance of a ‘tax concentration curve’ from its most inequitable version. The measure is derived, and a procedure is outlined for the decomposition of differences in the measure across regimes into a ‘distribution effect’ and a ‘tax system’ effect. A criterion is established for asserting ‘unambiguously greater equitability’ in comparisons across regimes, in terms of a dominance relation akin to the Lorenz quasi‐ordering. The measure is illustrated with the help of numerical examples.
Funder
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Subject
Economics and Econometrics,Sociology and Political Science