Is there More Redistribution Now? A Review of Methods for Evaluating Tax Redistributional Effects

When the Norwegian center-left government asked us to evaluate their tax redistributional efforts during their time in office (2005-2013), we faced a literature that offers a number of possible ways to do this. Studies vary along several dimensions, such as with respect to the definition of individual well-being, and how distinctly the contributions from tax policy effects are identified. In this paper we discuss various approaches that can be used to assess the link between individual taxation and redistribution over time. The discussion is accompanied by empirical illustrations of different techniques, showing results for the case of the personal income tax schedule of Norway in 2005-2013, a time period that covers the tax reform of 2006.