Resumen de Inequality and fiscal policy in Latin America: New insights
Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz Fuentes, Julio Revuelta López
Plagued by high inequality across the twentieth century, income inequality fell in Latin America from 2000s. Aiming to know the role of fiscal policy in this change we analyze the effects of nine fiscal policy instruments on income inequality in 17 Latin American countries between 1990 and 2014. We find fiscal policy has a significant but small effect reducing inequality in Latin America. First, aggregate public income and personal income taxation helped to reduce income inequality. Second, we identify different dynamics in urban and rural levels. Finally, only between 2003 and 2014 fiscal policy had effect reducing inequality in Latin America.
