Distributional impacts of meal vouchers
| Author: | Bc. Lenka Röhryová |
|---|---|
| Year: | 2014 - summer |
| Leaders: | doc. Petr Janský Ph.D. |
| Consultants: | |
| Work type: | Bachelors |
| Language: | English |
| Pages: | 79 |
| Awards and prizes: | B.A. with distinction from the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences for an extraordinarily good bachelors diploma thesis. |
| Link: | https://is.cuni.cz/webapps/zzp/detail/137718/ |
| Abstract: | The thesis aims to analyze distributional impacts of meal voucher sys- tem in the Czech Republic, especially in the context of income inequality between different income groups. In the first part, we study the features of the Czech meal voucher scheme, relevant legislative framework and offer a comparison of the Czech meal voucher system with other European coun- tries. In the second part, we perform an analysis of the redistributive effects of meal allowances on various income deciles, quantify the impact of meal allowances tax exemption on the government budget and simulate replace- ment of current meal allowances by flat meal allowances according to several scenarios. Based on our analysis, the meal allowances tax relief represents burden of 11.3 bn Kč for the state budget. Our findings suggest that current form of meal allowances widens the income gap between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, within as well as across the income deciles. The affluent households receive meal allowances more frequently, and moreover, nomin- ally and proportionately higher. We believe a replacement of current meal allowances scheme by one with a flat meal allowances (using the constant budget) would promote income equality. Then, the lower deciles would be- nefit, due to higher share of individuals entitled to the meal allowances, while the upper-deciles households would see decline in the meal allowances. |
