Rozane Bezerra de Siqueira

The Impact of Brazil's Tax-Benefit System on Inequality and Poverty

The Brazilian government raises taxes amounting to 35% of GDP and spends more than two thirds of this on social programmes. These shares are in pair with the OECD averages and well in excess of Latin America averages. However, while tax-benefit systems in most OECD countries reduce income disparities very significantly, the Brazilian government has been much less successful in alleviating inequality and poverty. Focussing on taxes and cash transfers, this paper investigates the impact of the government budget on the income distribution in Brazil, and evaluates its efficiency and effectiveness in reducing inequality and poverty. We present BRAHMS, a new tax-benefit microsimulation model for Brazil and illustrate its use by evaluating the impact of policy on economic inequality. It is argued that microsimulation provides a valuable analytical tool for policy makers in emerging and developing countries in particular.

Simulating Brazils tax-benefit system using Brahms, the Brazilian household microsimulation model

Apesar de arrecadar um montante de tributos equivalente a cerca de 37% do PIB e gastar mais da metade desta receita em programas sociais, o governo brasileiro nao tem sido capaz de aliviar significativamente o problema da desigualdade e da pobreza. Alguns estudos tem mostrado evidencia de que esta situacao e, em grande parte, devida a inadequada focalizacao dos gastos publicos. Entretanto, o impacto distributivo do financiamento desses gastos tem recebido menos atencao. O presente trabalho investiga o impacto conjunto dos tributos e transferencias monetarias governamentais sobre a distribuicao de renda entre os domicilios brasileiros e compara o Brasil com alguns outros paises com carga tributaria semelhante.

A CARGA TRIBUTÁRIA EFETIVA SOBRE O TRABALHO NO BRASIL: NÍVEL, DISTRIBUIÇÃO E COMPOSIÇÃO

This paper investigates the level, distribution and structure of the tax burden on labor in Brazil, showing how many and what types of workers are affected by different levels of taxation. The results show a significant variation in the level and composition of the tax burden among subgroups of workers. For example, the effective tax rate for a worker earning the legal minimum wage and having three or more children is little more than a third of the tax rate for a worker with earnings above thirty minimum wages. The study also shows that, compared to the European Union and OCDE countries, the Brazilian tax wedge on labor is one of the lowest, particularly for higher wages.

O custo marginal social da tributação indireta no Brasil: identificando direções de reforma

Este artigo aplica o metodo desenvolvido por Ahmad & Stern (1984) para calcular o custo marginal social da tributacao para 27 grupos de bens, usando microdados da POF 2002-2003 e elasticidades-preco da demanda baseadas no Sistema Quase Ideal de Demanda (AIDS). As estimativas sao apresentadas para diferentes hipoteses sobre o grau de aversao da sociedade a desigualdade. Os resultados indicam que alguns bens sao fortes candidatos a reducao de tributacao (e outros, ao aumento de tributacao) tanto por consideracoes distributivas quanto de eficiencia. Porem, de forma geral, ha um forte conflito entre os objetivos de equidade e de eficiencia na reforma da tributacao indireta no Brasil.

Características distributivas e impacto de reformas tributárias sobre o bem-estar das famílias no Brasil

The present work estimates the distributive characteristic of goods and services consumed by Brazilian families as reported in POF2008-09 and uses this information to design alternative indirect tax reform proposals. The impact ofthe reforms on welfare is assessed using the equivalent variation concept and the quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS). The results show that the three consumption goods with the highest distributive characteristics are domestic fuel, tobacco and basic food, and the three consumption goods with the lowest distributive characteristics are automotive fuel, alcoholic beverages and private transport. All reforms based on the distributive characteristics are progressive, with the most progressive ofthem resulting in a welfare gain to the poorest families equivalent to a 8.2% rise in their consumption, and in a welfare loss to the richest families equivalent to a 5.6% decrease in their consumption.

Optimal Commodity Taxation: A Survey and the Brazilian Case (Imposto Otimo Sobre O Consumo: Resenha Da Teoria E Uma Aplicacao Ao Caso Brasileiro)

This paper presents a survey of the optimal commodity taxation theory and, particularly, deals with the issue of uniformity versus selectivity of commodity tax rates. A review of the main empirical models is also presented. Moreover, the study attempts to calculate the optimal commodity taxes for Brazil. For this purpose, a simplified model is specified and solved under the extent of the governments aversion to inequality and restrictive assumptions regarding preferences of households. Our results show that the optimal commodity tax rates should have a selective structure. In particular, commodities in which lower households expenditure classes spend most should be subsidized.