https://hdl.handle.net/10419/64869 2026-11-07T18:51:43Z 2026-11-07T18:51:43Z Cellino, Francesco Coda Moscarola, Flavia Figari, Francesco https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324453 2025-08-26T06:54:20Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Redistributive effects of non-contributory pension schemes in the European Union Authors: Cellino, Francesco; Coda Moscarola, Flavia; Figari, Francesco Abstract: This paper investigates the role of non-contributory pension schemes in alleviating poverty among the elderly in the European Union. Non-contributory pensions, which are not linked to previous earnings or contributions, are a key element of public pension systems aimed at reducing poverty in old age. Using EUROMOD, the European tax-benefit microsimulation model, this study covers pension schemes in place in 2021 in most EU countries. Our findings show that non-contributory pensions are a significant component of older individuals' income in nearly all EU countries, particularly in nations like Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands, where universal basic pensions exist. In most other countries, these pensions are targeted at the poorest elderly. Our simulations estimate that abolishing non-contributory pensions would lead to a heterogeneous increase in elderly poverty rates across countries up to 64 percentage points. We also find that countries with more generous non-contributory schemes tend to have stronger general social assistance instruments.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Geyer, Leonard Groß-Wohlgemuth, Felix https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324449 2025-08-26T06:54:07Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The buffering effect of the Austrian tax-benefit system on child poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic Authors: Geyer, Leonard; Groß-Wohlgemuth, Felix Abstract: This paper analyses the effect of the COVID-19-induced labour market shock on household income, the at-risk-of-poverty (AROP) rate for children in Austria, and the buffering effect of the Austrian tax-benefit system. We apply Paulus & Tasseva's (2020) decomposition analysis based on EUROMOD simulations and propose a new approach to adjust Austrian EU-SILC data to control for benefit payments included in income variables. Our results indicate that automatic stabilisers and discretionary policy measures protected households with children from significant market income shocks, preventing an increase in child poverty between 2019 and 2020. However, comparing 2019 and 2021, the tax-benefit system was less successful in protecting lower-income families, resulting in an increase in the child AROP rate. Furthermore, we show that not adjusting input data would overestimate disposable income increases and distort the effects of discretionary policies and automatic stabilisers.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Maier, Sofia De Poli, Silvia Amores, Antonio F. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324450 2025-08-26T06:53:58Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Carbon taxes on consumption: Distributional implications for a just transition in the EU Authors: Maier, Sofia; De Poli, Silvia; Amores, Antonio F. Abstract: Carbon taxes on household consumption can simultaneously increase public funding and promote greener consumption habits, an appealing combination for the just transition plans of the European Union (EU). However, concerns about equity and public support pose challenges. This paper assesses the distributional and budgetary effects of various designs for an EU-wide hypothetical carbon tax on households consumption. To this end, we extend the EU tax-benefit microsimulation model, EUROMOD, with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data from input-output tables and estimate households' carbon footprints. We show that a carbon tax on households GHG emissions would be regressive, thereby inequality-increasing. This is primarily due to the low income elasticity of highly GHG-intense necessity goods, such as food and heating, which represent larger shares of income at the bottom of the distribution. Still, we demonstrate that this inequality-increasing impact can be offset with compensatory cash transfers (though these may be challenging to implement), and at least partially reverted with more progressive (and presumably feasible) tax designs, including rate differentiation by products and tax allowances.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Bursens, Floore De Poli, Silvia Maier, Sofia Verbist, Gerlinde https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324451 2025-08-26T06:53:49Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Bridging climate and social equity: Progressive carbon tax simulations for Belgium Authors: Bursens, Floore; De Poli, Silvia; Maier, Sofia; Verbist, Gerlinde Abstract: This paper explores the distributive impact of a hypothetical carbon tax on households' transport and energy consumption in Belgium. It focuses on the welfare effects across population groups and along the income distribution, as well as on the expected budgetary and environmental effects, accounting for consumer responses under a partial equilibrium microsimulation framework. Given the well-known regressive features of consumption taxes in general, and of energy- or carbon-related taxes in particular, this study evaluates various methods for making the carbon tax more progressive and assesses how these methods affect the overall distributional outcomes. We assess both the expected results as well as the feasibility of each of the tax design scenarios, considering the effect on household income and its distribution vis-a-vis the expected reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

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