Ball, L., Furceri, D., Leigh, D., & Loungani, Pr., (2013), “The Distributional Effects of Fiscal Consolidation”, IMF Working Paper, N.,13/151.
This paper examines the distributional effects of fiscal consolidation. Using episodes of fiscal consolidation for a sample of 17 OECD countries over the period 1978–2009, we find that fiscal consolidation has typically had significant distributional effects by raising inequality, decreasing wage income shares and increasing long-term unemployment. The evidence also suggests that spending-based adjustments have had, on average, larger distributional effects than tax-based adjustments.