No. 43 (2015)
Artículos

Redistribution of Taxes and Benefits in Mexico: Evaluation of the 2014 Fiscal Reform on Households

Luis Huesca
Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo (CIAD) and Département d’économique, Université Laval Research Fellow.
Bio
Arturo Robles Valencia
Universidad de Sonora
Bio
Abdelkrim Araar
Département d’économique, Université Laval, Poverty (PEP) and Centre sur le Risque, les Politiques Economiques et le Emploi (CIRPÉE).
Bio
Published December 1, 2015
Keywords
  • progressivity,
  • redistribution,
  • vertical equity,
  • horizontal inequity,
  • non-parametric analysis

Abstract

We measured, for the first time, the general redistributive effect in the Mexican fiscal system with the Duclos-Jalbert-Araar decomposition approach, obtaining: vertical equity, horizonal inequity (HI) and reranking effect. The novelty of this application lies in the use of non-parametric techniques and the fact that we did not assume any functional relationship between the variables in our analysis. Our paper contributes with an assessment of the fiscal reform that took place in 2014 and compares it with the previous situation. A tax-benefit system with relative progressivity but high HI effect is found, as well as an increase on tax revenues up to 5.2 and 3.7 percent of GDP for income tax and VAT respectively.

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