Progressivity and redistributive effects of income taxes: evidence from India.

We analyse the progressivity and redistributive effects of India's income tax system utilizing Income Tax Department data for 2011-18. By fitting Lorenz and tax concentration curves to these data, we find that despite exhibiting high levels of progressivity, the redistributive effects of income taxes remain modest amongst tax assessees and miniscule within the adult population. We also find that plugging the gap between statutory and actual average tax rates will do little to improve redistributive effects, and lowering income thresholds for top marginal tax rates offers greater redistributive and revenue potential than reducing exemption limits or increasing top marginal tax rates.

Public support in the United States for global equity in vaccine pricing.

Global vaccine prices that are tiered across countries, equitable for poorer countries, and profitable for manufacturers (TEP) can promote global vaccine equity but its implementation may require political will and public support in rich countries. A survey experiment with a demographically representative sample of US adults was conducted between April and May 2021 to investigate public support for TEP and the likelihood of collective agreement on TEP relative to alternative global vaccine pricing strategies. The experiment varied vaccine cost and provision of information about the importance of equity and profitability considerations in global vaccine pricing across eight treatment conditions. TEP of low-cost vaccines received less support than TEP of high-cost vaccines, but TEP received more public support than any alternative pricing strategy. Information about equity and profitability considerations increased support for TEP of low-cost vaccines. TEP was also the most likely pricing strategy to achieve collective agreement among participants across all treatments.

Financing of fiscal response to COVID-19: a pragmatic alternative.

As governments around the world, including the Indian government, mount a fiscal response to the Covid-19 crisis, the question of how to finance it has risen to prominence. We argue that the option of the central bank monetizing the additional government debt and then writing it off offers a pragmatic way out.