Income Distribution and Tax and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries

By Hamid R. Davoodi, S. Gupta, Ke-young Chu. Social Science Research Network, 2000

269 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper reviews income distribution in developing (and transition) countries in recent decades. On average, before-tax income distribution in developing countries is less unequal than in industrial countries. However, unlike industrial countries, developing countries in general have not been able to use tax and transfer policies effectively to reduce income inequality. During the 1980s and 1990s, many developing countries experienced an increase in income inequality. The government health care and primary and secondary education programs in developing countries are not well targeted, but their incidence tends to be progressive.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8eea4becf9ba9d315d02fa494db37f0eb3c87c8f

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Citations in the corpus

The Consequences of Fiscal Decentralization on Poverty and Income Equality (2011, background): “55 For further discussion see, for example, Chu et al. (2000) and Deininger and Squire (1996).”
DOES GOVERNMENT SPENDING AFFECT INCOME INEQUALITY? A META‐REGRESSION ANALYSIS (2017, unknown): “It is often argued that the redistributive effect of taxation in developing countries has been limited, due for example to greater reliance on indirect taxes and widespread evasion of direct taxes (e.g. Tanzi 1974, Bird and Zolt 2005, Chu et al 2000, Goni et al 2011, Mahon 2012, Claus et al 2012).”
For Protection and Promotion: The Design and Implementation of Effective Safety Nets (2008, background): “Chu, Davoodi, and Gupta (2000) provide a comprehensive overview of the tax incidence literature in developing countries.”
Business Power and Tax Reform: Taxing Income and Profits in Chile and Argentina (2010, background): “Progressive taxation can also make a direct contribution to redistribution (Zee 2004; Piketty and Saez 2006); many of the region's tax systems are instead regressive (Chu et al. 2000; Sabaini et al. 2006).”
Fiscal Redistribution and Income Inequality in Latin America (2008, background): “For a comparison of industrial and developing countries see Chu et al. (2000).”
Inequality in China – Trends, Drivers and Policy Remedies (2018, background): “Furthermore, second round effects may exist, offsetting the equalizing effect through higher market inequality (Chu et al., 2000).”