We develop and use an extensive toolset to support analyses of the socio-economic impact of EU policies on taxation and social policy.
Tax and social benefit policies have been instrumental over recent years to mitigate multiple shocks related to the pandemic, inflation dynamics or the energy crisis.
They will be even more important in the context of post-Covid recovery, the green and digital transitions, and to help balance sustainability concerns with fairer and more inclusive societies.
At the same time, ongoing structural trends like ageing, migration or technological changes affect public budgets in a number of ways and require in-depth analyses to better adapt fiscal policies to the new reality.
EUROMOD
EUROMOD is the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union that enables researchers and policy analysts to calculate, in a comparable manner, the distributional/inequality/poverty impacts of tax-benefit policies. Recent model extensions cover indirect taxes and hypothetical households.
EUROMOD is maintained, updated and disseminated by the JRC Fiscal Policy Analysis team and it is widely used by researchers and policymakers across the EU.
Other modeling tools
We develop other analytical tools, using different methodological approaches, to broaden the scope of research and policy questions we can reply. Among them
- EUROLAB - Econometric labour supply/demand model to simulate impact of fiscal policy reforms affecting employment and labour supply decisions
- INTAXMOD - Model for the simulation of inheritance and gift taxation in the context of ageing
- Housing Taxation Database - Time series database on the main elements of housing taxation in European countries
Direct taxation and social benefits for households
The social dimension ranks high on the EU policy agenda. The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and the objectives of the green and digital transitions endorse social cohesion and fairness as guiding principles for policymaking in the EU. The promotion of EU social objectives should benefit from sound analyses and research emphasising the value added of EU policy making.
The JRC participates in this endeavour by using its extensive toolset and expertise to support analyses of the socio-economic impact of EU policies, both at the EU and national levels for a fairer and more inclusive EU.
Taxation on consumption - including green taxation
We analyse and assess policy reforms and proposals and develop research concerning consumption taxation, in particular reforms aimed at promoting the EU green targets, including the Commission proposal for the revision of the Energy Tax Directive and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Monitoring public healthcare: the INEQHEALTH project
We devise and apply methods to monitor the redistributive impact of public healthcare, which relies on estimating the value of in-kind health transfers received by households. We also analyse the affordability and access to health services, especially by vulnerable households, with the aim of helping policy makers to identify gaps in healthcare coverage in the EU.
We consider the distributional impact of funding healthcare, as well as its long-term sustainability given the ongoing demographic trends.
