Has monetary policy made you happier?

Concerns were raised about the distributional impact of the loosening in UK monetary policy following the financial crisis. We assess the impact of this loosening on well-being using household-level data and estimated utility functions. The welfare benefits are found to have been positive, in aggregate and across most of the household distribution, relative to […]

Moving towards fairer regional minimum income schemes in Spain

[…] coverage and adequacy, is of the essence. We assess the budgetary, distributional and poverty effects of the current Spanish regional minimum income schemes, as well as the impact of increasing both coverage rates and adequacy levels. Using the European microsimulation model EUROMOD together with microdata from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living […]

What can previous recessions tell us about the Covid-19 downturn?

[…] UK economy is on track to suffer its biggest unemployment shock since at least the 1980s recession. Despite their different impacts across industries, the Covid-19 crisis and the three most recent UK recessions share the common feature of a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable (the poorest, the youngest, the least educated, and ethnic minorities).

Labour tax and child benefits reform in Lithuania: for better or worse?

[…] and, to a limited extent, the additional child benefit. Simulations based on the EUROMOD and QUEST models are used to assess the fiscal, redistributive, equity and macroeconomic impact of these reforms. Overall, the set of simulated changes marginally decreases the tax wedge, poverty and income inequality. The child benefits reform has a progressive impact […]