Tax and Benefit Policies in the Enlarged Europe Assessing the Impact with Microsimulation Models

Contents: Introduction, Orsolya Lelkes and Holly Sutherland; Part I Setting the Scene: An enlarged role for tax benefit models, Sir Anthony B. Atkinson; EUROMOD: past, present and future, Holly Sutherland. Part II Comparative Analyses Using the Enlarged EUROMOD: The effects of taxes and benefits on income distribution in the enlarged EU, Alari Paulus, Mitja Cok, Francesco Figari, Péter Hegedüs, Silja Kralik, NataÅ¡a Kump, Orsolya Lelkes, Horacio Levy, Christine Lietz, Daniela Mantovani, Leszek Morawski, Holly Sutherland, Péter Szivós and Andres Võrk; Flat tax reform in Eastern Europe: a comparative analysis of alternative scenarios in Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia, using EUROMOD, Alari Paulus, Orsolya Lelkes, Mitja Cok, NataÅ¡a Kump, Péter Hegedüs Andres Võrk, Péter Szivós and Silja Kralik; Alternative tax-benefit strategies to support children in Poland, Horacio Levy, Leszek Morawski and Michal Myck. Part III Evidence Based on Emerging National Models: Reforming child allowances in Lithuania: what does microsimulation tell us?, Lina Salanauskaite and Gerlinde Verbist; Tax-free income vs. in-work tax allowances: effects on labour market participation in Cyprus, Panos Pashardes and Alexandros Polycarpou; Looking ahead: what priorities for tax-benefit modelling?, Herwig Immervoll and Orsolya Lelkes.

Biography

Orsolya Lelkes is an Economic Policy Analyst and Research Fellow at the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. She is also a research affiliate at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics. From 2002 to 2005 she was the head of the Economics Research Unit at the Ministry of Finance in Hungary and the national representative at the Council of Europe Economic Policy Committee in Brussels. Holly Sutherland is a Research Professor at ISER, University of Essex. She has 25 years experience in designing, building and using tax-benefit models. She has published widely in economics and social policy journals and she is the co- author (with G. Redmond and M. Wilson) of The Arithmetic of Tax and Social Security Reform and the co- editor (with L. Mitton and M. Weeks) of Microsimulation Modelling for Policy Analysis: Challenges and Innovations.

'The appropriate collection of published studies in Part II and III make the book interesting for a broader audience by providing an overall view on the possible applications of the model...At the same time, the in-depth analysis in individual chapters is interesting for economists and social scientists working in the field of tax and benefit policies....this book is interesting for the broader community and should be read by the experts of tax-benefit policies' The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 'The authors are to be congratulated on a most useful book, but even more on the model-building and research projects which it's all about.' Citizen's Income