In this paper, we define a new class of richness measures. In contrast to the often used headcount, these new measures are sensitive to changes in rich persons' income and therefore allow for a more sophisticated analysis of richness. We demonstrate the application of these new measures to analyze the development of poverty and richness over time in Germany, to compare Germany to many other European countries and to investigate the impact of tax reforms on poverty and richness. Using these examples, we show the importance of taking into account the intensity of changes and not only the number of people beyond a given richness line (headcount). We propose to use the new measures in addition to the headcount index for a more comprehensive analysis of richness. JEL Classification:D31, H23, I32

Flat Tax reform, Equity, Efficiency, Distribution, Welfare, D31, D60, H20,

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractThe introduction of a ‡at tax is supposed to have several advantages. Administration and compliance costs are reduced, as well as incentives for tax evasion. Furthermore, positive employment and growth e¤ects are expected. Despite these advantages, a ‡at rate tax is not very popular in most Western European countries. The most important objection against a ‡at tax states that a ‡at rate tax would be inequitable and unfair. The present paper uses a simulation model based on a unique database of German micro data to provide empirical evidence for the analysis of the equity and e¢ ciency e¤ects as indicators for the political feasibility of ‡at rate tax reforms. Our analysis shows that the selection of the schedule and tax base parameters are crucial for the e¤ects of ‡at tax reforms in terms of equity and e¢ ciency. A ‡at rate tax with a higher basic allowance and a higher single rate has less harmful distributional e¤ects than a ‡at rate tax with low basic allowance and tax rate. Nevertheless, the scenario with the lowest parameter values for basic allowance and tax rate is the only alternative that leads to positive labour supply and signi…cantly positive welfare e¤ects. Both labour supply and static welfare e¤ects, however, are quite small. Although we have derived our results for the case of Germany, we do think that similar patterns would be observed in other countries of Western Europe. If this proves to be correct, it will be hard for ‡at tax reforms to invade the grown-up welfare states of "Old Europe".JEL Codes: D31, D60, H20

This paper describes FiFoSiM, the integrated tax benefit microsimulation and computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Center of Public Economics at the University of Cologne. FiFoSiM consists of three main parts. The first part is a static tax benefit microsimulation module. The second part adds a behavioural component to the model: an econometrically estimated labour supply model. The third module is a CGE model which allows the user of FiFoSiM to assess the global economic effects of policy measures. Two specific features distinguish FiFoSiM from other tax benefit models: First, the simultaneous use of two databases for the tax benefit module and second, the linkage of the tax benefit model to a CGE model.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in