Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
December 15, 2017
Abstract:
Most studies using microsimulation techniques have considered the effect of potential reforms on the income distribution. However, it has become increasingly recognized, both at the academic and political level, that focusing purely on income provides a limited picture of social progress. We illustrate how ex-ante policy evaluation can be performed in terms of richer concepts of individual well-being, such as subjective life satisfaction and equivalent incomes. Our analysis makes use of EUROMOD, the EU-wide tax-benefit microsimulation model, along with 2013 EU-SILC data for Sweden, which for the first time provides information on life satisfaction. Our results show that the effect of potential reforms varies widely depending on the well-being concept used in the evaluation. We discuss the normative questions that are raised by this finding.
Published in
Journal of Economic Inequality
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 15 , p.421 -440
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-017-9370-x
ISSN
15691721
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
© The Author(s) 2017
#524864
Related Publications
-
Putting subjective well-being to use for ex-ante policy evaluation
- Holguer Xavier Jara Tamayo
- Erik Schokkaert
EUROMOD Working Paper Series
December 19, 2016