Comparing governments' efficiency at supplying income redistribution

Fabio Padovano (1, 2) , Francesco Scervini (3) , Gilberto Turati (4)

1 CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management
2 ROMA TRE - Università degli Studi Roma Tre = Roma Tre University
3 UNIPV - Università degli Studi di Pavia = University of Pavia
4 Unicatt - Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore [Milano]

We examine whether and to what extent political institutions explain different performances in income redistribution across countries. After reviewing the available data sources, the measures of income redistribution and the traditional demand side explanations of redistribution, we focus our analysis on supply side factors, like political and economic institutions, rent seeking processes and the resources and instruments available for redistribution. We provide robust empirical evidence on the association between these different factors and the observed degree of redistribution. Our analysis supports the view that-for a given demand of redistribution-political and economic institutions contribute to explain differences across countries in the observed degree of redistribution.

Mots clés: Redistribution; Ex ante and ex post Gini coefficients; Political and economic institutions

Domaines: Economies et finances

Fabio Padovano, Francesco Scervini, Gilberto Turati. Comparing governments' efficiency at supplying income redistribution. Constitutional Political Economy, In press, ⟨10.1007/s10602-020-09314-6⟩. ⟨hal-02958623⟩