Tibor Barna: The redistributive impact of taxes and socialpolicies in the UK: 1937-2005

Regular annual studies made by the Office of National Statistics in the UK areintended to show how far taxing household incomes and giving benefits in cash andkind to households redistributes income from rich to poor. The first attempt to do thisin the UK was made by Tibor Barna for the year 1937. Subsequently his approach hasbeen replicated and elaborated. This study reworks and compares data from variousstudies to see how the scale and nature of the state’s redistributive role has changedover the past seventy years. Differences in methods and data make comparisonsdifficult but some broad conclusions can be drawn. Some methodological issues arealso discussed on the question of how to approach household equivalisation whenservices in kind are treated as income.[...]