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Income taxes and redistribution in the early twentieth century

Torregrosa Hetland, Sara LU and Sabaté, Oriol (2025) In Economic History Review
Abstract
This paper examines the distributive effects of personal income taxation in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the first half of the 20th century. We estimate the evolution of marginal and average effective tax rates across the income distribution and calculate the corresponding indices of progressivity and redistribution. Our results show that redistribution through income taxation increased during the period with varying intensity and mechanisms. During World War I, this was a joint effect of increases in the amount of revenue collected and progressivity. In contrast, during World War II, revenue increased again but progressivity diminished.
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author
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
in press
subject
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Economic History Review
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN
1468-0289
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3679b17c-3f0f-4929-9316-227ae7d8f1ce
date added to LUP
2025-05-05 15:42:17
date last changed
2025-05-06 10:45:01
@article{3679b17c-3f0f-4929-9316-227ae7d8f1ce,
  abstract     = {{This paper examines the distributive effects of personal income taxation in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the first half of the 20th century. We estimate the evolution of marginal and average effective tax rates across the income distribution and calculate the corresponding indices of progressivity and redistribution. Our results show that redistribution through income taxation increased during the period with varying intensity and mechanisms. During World War I, this was a joint effect of increases in the amount of revenue collected and progressivity. In contrast, during World War II, revenue increased again but progressivity diminished.}},
  author       = {{Torregrosa Hetland, Sara and Sabaté, Oriol}},
  issn         = {{1468-0289}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Economic History Review}},
  title        = {{Income taxes and redistribution in the early twentieth century}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}