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From the abstract: > Inequality grew in nearly all European countries, but much less than in the US. Contrary to a widespread view, we demonstrate that Europe'
by senko 4y ago
From the abstract:
> Inequality grew in nearly all European countries, but much less than in the US. Contrary to a widespread view, we demonstrate that Europe's lower inequality levels cannot be explained by more equalizing tax and transfer systems.
> After accounting for indirect taxes and in-kind transfers, the US redistributes a greater share of national income to low-income groups than any European country. "Predistribution," not "redistribution," explains why Europe is less unequal than the United States.
(Edit: thanks boulos for the direct PDF link and vlovich123 for finding their definition of the term)
- vlovich123 4y ago> We refer in this paper to “redistribution” as the operation of the tax-and-transfer system, mea- sured by the difference between pretax and posttax income inequality. By contrast, “predistribution” refers to all forms of government interventions (such as labor market regulations, minimum wages, educational investments, etc.) that drive pretax inequality levels (see section IV as well as Hacker and Pierson (2010) for a discussion of these concepts).
- defrost 4y ago> In other words, Europe has been much more successful than the US at ensuring that its low-income groups benefit from relatively good-paying jobs. ie By "Predistribution" they assert that most European countries pay better at the low end and thus have less need to "redistribute" from the better paid end.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]