Find the conference agenda here. The conference presentations are available below.

How are taxes and benefits shared across citizens and generations? How can the structure of taxes and of public expenditure be designed so they are an effective instruments to foster more dynamic and equitable societies?

Poverty has declined significantly over the past few decades, but 2.5 billion people continue to live in poverty and 1.2 billion in extreme poverty. Meanwhile, access to adequate nutrition, good health services, quality education and other basic services remains very uneven.

In this context, a critical development challenge many countries have to address is to make their fiscal policies effective in accelerating poverty reduction and promoting equity.

Fiscal incidence analysis is one approach to comprehensively assess how taxation and public expenditures affect income inequality, poverty, and different socioeconomic groups. However, incidence analysis is quite complex in practice given the limitations in existing information, the importance of taking into account behavioral responses, and the ambiguity surrounding the definition of concepts.

The Third World Bank Conference on Equity, co-organized with Tulane University, aims to collect the views of leading experts on methodological good practices and state-of-the-art approaches.

Conference Presentations

Keynote address

Fiscal Policy and Inequality: Keynote Address. Kaushik Basu, World Bank

Globalization, Poverty and Inequality. Basu, 2006

Globalization and Development. Basu, 2002

Session 1: Fiscal Incidence Analysis: Theory and Practice

Fiscal Incidence Analysis in Theory and Practice. Nora Lustig, Tulane University

The Distributional Impact of Fiscal Policy. Stephen Younger, Ithaca College

Session 2: Identifying the Economic Incidence of Taxes

Some Thoughts on Incidence Analysis. James Alm, Tulane University

Assessing the Incidence of Taxation. David Phillips, Institute for Fiscal Studies

Decisions Needed for Development of Tax Burden Estimates. Sally Wallace, Georgia State University

Session 3: Contributory Pensions and Other Benefits

Contributory Pensions and Other Benefits. Carola Pessino, Universidad del CEMA

Session 4: Direct Transfers and Subsidies

Measuring the Incidence of Fuel Subsidies. Benedict Clements, International Monetary Fund

Redistribution and Transfers in Europe and Central Asia. Kathy Lindert, World Bank

Presentation at 2013 World Bank Conference on Equity. Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, Purdue University

Session 5: In-Kind Transfers: Health, Education and Food

In-Kind Transfers (With Some References to Food). John Scott, CIDE.

Distributional Impact of Fiscal Policy: In-Kind Benefits. Ian Preston, University College London and Institute for Fiscal Studies

Session 6: Infrastructure and Public Order

Who Benefits From Utility Subsidies? Quentin Wodon, World Bank

The Economic Incidence of Infrastructure Spending. Dominique van de Walle, World Bank

Distributional Impact of Fiscal Policy: Public Order and Safety. Cormac O'Dea, Institute for Fiscal Studies