OECD Economics Department Working Papers

ISSN :
1815-1973 (online)
DOI :
10.1787/18151973
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Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.
 

Work Incentives and Recent Reforms of the Tax and Benefit System in Hungary You or your institution have access to this content

Authors:
Tímea Ladányi1, Rafal Kierzenkowski2
Author Affiliations
  • 1: Ministry for National Economy, Hungary

  • 2: OECD, France

Publication Date
09 Mar 2012
Bibliographic information
No.:
944
Pages
18
DOI
10.1787/5k9d1969m56b-en

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Reducing the extent of inactivity and promoting labour supply is essential to foster labour market outcomes in Hungary in the medium term. Notwithstanding specific factors linked to education, the pension system or family and disability policies, financial disincentives play an important role in this regard. This paper describes the impact of recent reforms of the tax and benefit system in Hungary on some indicators of financial incentives to enter the labour market derived from OECD tax and benefit models. While personal income taxes were cut and the system of tax allowances for families became more generous other welfare benefits were reduced or phased out, which causes significant changes in the incentives for workers, inactive or unemployed people. Between 2010 and 2012, the average tax wedge dropped for high-income earners and/or families with two children, but increased mainly for individuals without children and income below the 80th percentile, which was partly mitigated by the implementation of compensation schemes. However, there is still a large gap in the average tax wedge with the OECD average and regional peers, notably driven by high social security contributions. The implicit tax on returning to work from unemployment remains relatively high and increased below the average wage for most family types. However, it was cut above that level. The absolute level of the implicit tax on returning to work from inactivity is significantly lower notably following across-the-board cuts for lone parents and one-earner married couples with two children, somewhat offset by increases below the average wage for families without children.
Keywords:
effective tax rate, Hungary, benefit system, replacement rate, tax wedge, implicit tax, labour supply
JEL Classification:
  • D63: Microeconomics / Welfare Economics / Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
  • H23: Public Economics / Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue / Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
  • H24: Public Economics / Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue / Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
  • J22: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demand and Supply of Labor / Time Allocation and Labor Supply
  • J38: Labor and Demographic Economics / Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs / Public Policy
  • J65: Labor and Demographic Economics / Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies / Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings