Shifting tax burden to top income earners: what is the best way to reduce inequality?

The authors analyze to what extent and how the tax burden should be shifted towards top income earners in order to reduce income inequality. Starting from Lambert and Aronson (Inequality decomposition analysis and the Gini coefficient revisited 1993) and Alvaredo (A note on the relationship between top income shares and the Gini coefficient 2011) decomposition by income groups, they prove that for three types of revenue-neutral linear personal income tax reforms (PIT) based on Pfähler (1984) the redistributive effect is always higher than before the reform; and when the size of the rich group is sufficiently small (e.g. 1%), the best option is allocating tax changes proportionally to net income, and the worst doing it proportionally to tax liabilities. An empirical illustration of the theoretical results is provided using micro data from the Spanish PIT.

本文作者分析了为降低收入不平等，应在何种程度、以何种路径将税负向顶端收入群体转嫁。研究基于Lambert与Aronson（《不平等分解分析与基尼系数（Gini coefficient）再探讨》，1993）以及Alvaredo（《关于高收入占比与基尼系数关系的注记》，2011）提出的收入分组分解方法，结合Pfähler（1984）的研究框架，证明三类收入中性线性个人所得税（Personal Income Tax，简称PIT）改革的再分配效应始终高于改革前水平；且当高收入群体规模足够小时（如占比1%），最优方案为按净收入比例分配税负调整额，最差方案则为按应纳税额比例实施调整。本文采用西班牙个人所得税微观数据，对上述理论结果开展了实证演示。