Income-Related Subsidies for Universal Health Insurance Premia: Exploring Alternatives Using the SWITCH Model. ESRI WP516. November 2015

The Programme for Government indicated that under a Universal Health Insurance system, the State would “pay insurance premia for people on low incomes and subsidise premia for people on middle incomes”. This paper examines issues in the design of such a subsidy scheme, in the context of overall premium costs as estimated by Wren et al. (2015) and the KPMG (2015) study for the Health Insurance Authority. Subsidy design could involve a step-level system, similar to the medical card and GP visit card in the current system; or a smooth, tapered withdrawal of the subsidy, similar to what obtains for many cash benefits in the welfare system. The trade-offs between the income limit up to which a full subsidy would be payable, the rate of withdrawal of subsidy with respect to extra income and overall subsidy cost are explored

What Role for Property Taxes in Ireland?. ESRI WP322. October 2009

What role could a property tax play in broadening the Irish tax base? Could a recurrent tax on immovable property provide greater stability than a system of stamp duties, while removing obstacles to mobility? What about the relationship between a property tax and ability to pay – should or could the bills facing those with valuable houses and little income be reduced or eliminated without making a property tax a quasi-income tax? These are among the questions explored in this paper, which provides a broad picture of the issues, illustrated by detailed microsimulation of the impact of specific forms of property tax

Tax Structure and Female Labour Market Participation: Evidence from Ireland. ESRI WP208. September 2007

How great an effect does the structure of income taxes have on women’s labour market participation? This issue is investigated using a discrete choice static labour supply model for married couples in Ireland. The model incorporates fixed costs of working and simultaneously explains participation decisions and preferred hours of work. Details of the tax system are fully incorporated, and key elements of the welfare system are also taken into account. The model is estimated using data from the 1994 wave of the Living in Ireland Survey. The results are used to analyse the labour supply effects of a move to greater independence in the tax treatment of couples. The influence of tax structure on participation is reconsidered in the light of trends in women’s participation in the labour market and two key changes in the structure of taxation: a shift from a joint or aggregated basis of assessment to an “income-splitting” system in 1980 and a further substantial shift from income-splitting towards greater independence from 2000 onwards

The Tax Treatment of Pension Contributions in Ireland. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, Summer 2018

Tax treatments of pensions vary widely across countries. This paper examines the current tax treatment of pension contributions in Ireland and some widely discussed alternatives, including equalising the tax relief available to low and high earners. The analysis takes into account both explicit contributions in the private sector, and the implicit value of publicly funded pensions

Modelling Eligibility for Medical Cards and GP Visit Cards: Methods and Baseline Results. ESRI WP515. November 2015

The Irish healthcare system includes a complex mix of entitlements – some are universal, others age-related, and some are income-related. In this report, we concentrate on the major income-related entitlements in the current system i.e., the Medical Card and the GP Visit Card. Most medical cards are provided on an income-tested basis, and provide free access to in-patient and out-patient care in public hospitals, to GP care, and to prescription drugs. We examine how the income test for such schemes can be modelled using the detailed income and demographic information in the Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The approach taken applies the rules for income-related cards to each family in this nationally representative sample, using the information they provide on incomes and family composition. This is essential groundwork for later studies which will examine how the pattern of entitlements might change under different rules, such as those introducing age-related entitlements to GP visit cards, or changes in income limits

BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2016, PAPER 1. Exploring Tax and Welfare Options. June 2015

Budgetary policies on income-related taxes and welfare must find a balance between providing income support to those in need and maintaining a financial incentive to work which supports high employment. This paper focuses principally on the “cash” or “first round” impact of tax and welfare policy changes across the income distribution. Incentive issues are considered in Section 5 of this paper, and in a companion paper to this conference (Savage et al., 2015)

BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2016, PAPER 2. Making Work Pay More: Recent Initiatives. June 2015

This paper examines the financial incentives to work implicit in the Irish tax and benefit system, focusing in particular on incentives facing those who are unemployed and in receipt of Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Assistance. The results, based on an analysis of current incomes, benefits and taxes, suggest that more than eight out of ten of these unemployed jobseekers would see their income increase by at least 40 per cent upon taking up employment. Fewer than 3 per cent of these individuals would, in the short-term, be financially better off not in work. The risk of facing weak financial incentives to work is higher for unemployed persons with a spouse and children, as the income support goal of the welfare system means that they tend to have higher welfare payments. However, even among that group, fewer than 1 in 15 would be financially better off not working. Our analysis shows that a recent policy initiative, the Back to Work Family Dividend, announced in Budget 2015, clearly improves the immediate financial incentives to work for this group

Crisis, Response and Distributional Impact: The Case of Ireland. ESRI WP456. May 2013

Ireland is one of the countries most severely affected by the Great Recession. National income fell by more than 10 per cent between 2007 and 2012, as a result of the bursting of a remarkable property bubble, an exceptionally severe banking crisis, and deep fiscal adjustment. This paper examines the income distribution consequences of the recession, and identifies the impact of a broad range of austerity policies on the income distribution. The overall fall in income was just under 8 per cent between 2008 and 2011, but the greatest losses were strongly concentrated on the bottom and top deciles. Tax, welfare and public sector pay changes over the 2008 to 2013 period gave rise to slightly lower than average losses for the bottom decile. Thus, the larger than average losses observed overall are not due to these policy changes; instead, the main driving factors are the direct effects of the recession itself. Policy changes do contribute to the larger than average losses at high income levels

TACKLING LOW INCOME AND DEPRIVATION: DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE POLICIES. RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 1 JUNE 2008

This study examines options for the future development of the Irish welfare state, with a view to tackling low income and deprivation more effectively. It draws on existing national and cross-country evidence as well as providing new analyses to inform policy debate in this area. The impact of alternative policy choices is explored using SWITCH, the ESRI tax-benefit model