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Taxation, Welfare and Pensions
Professor James Poterba, MIT delivered the annual Geary Lecture entitled "The Challenge of Tax Reform and Expanding the Tax Base" on 28/5/09. Professor Poterba is pictured with Professor Frances Ruane and Professor Tim Callan.
Professor James Poterba, MIT delivered the annual Geary Lecture entitled "The Challenge of Tax Reform and Expanding the Tax Base" on 28/5/09. Professor Poterba is pictured with Professor Frances Ruane and Professor Tim Callan.

Ppt Slides from the Geary Lecture 2009
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Pdf Distributional Impact of Budget 2009 - article from Irish Times 10 April 2009
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Taxes and transfers (including pensions) play a key role in influencing both the welfare of households and the behaviour of individuals and firms. Analysis in this area has been an important ongoing area of research for the Institute, feeding directly into the government’s annual budgetary process.
 
Current research includes:
  • Assessing the impact of budgetary policy changes.
  • Developing and exploring options for future tax and welfare policies.
  • Measuring financial incentives to work.
  • Investigating the influence of non-cash benefits on economic welfare.
During 2007 a new Steering Group was established to enhance the contribution of the Institute’s analysis of tax and welfare issues to policy debate and policy formation. The Steering Group is made up of representatives of the Department of Finance and the Department of Social and Family Affairs, along with key ESRI staff. One of the areas identified as of key importance was the area of pensions. A paper dealing with the balance between state support for occupational pension provision and direct support of the State pension was presented at the Budget Perspectives conference in October 2007. Further work is under way, to contribute to the debate on pensions in response to the Green Paper. SWITCH, the ESRI tax-benefit model was once again used to undertake “poverty impact assessment” of the annual Budget, in two forms: an official analysis, provided in the Budget booklet, and an independent commentary by ESRI staff.
 
Work on a major EU-funded project on the Accurate Income Measurement for the Assessment of Policy (AIMAP) continued, with a particular focus on the measurement of non-cash benefits or income advantages arising from owner-occupied housing, and health and education services provided free of charge.
 
Future Research
Areas of interest for future research include:
  • The sustainability of current pension policies in the light of the changing demographic structure.
  • Equity and efficiency in state support for private and public pensions.
  • Taxes and subsidies on housing.
  • Behavioural responses to tax and welfare policies.
  • The impact of taxes on expenditure, including those on tobacco and alcohol.
  • Environmental taxes: revenue recycling and distributional issues.


Programme Coordinator – Tim Callan

Other members of staff who work in this area include: Claire Keane, Sean Lyons, Richard Tol and John Walsh.