October 27, 2017

The US government, through its tax system and spending, does the least to reduce inequality among all high-income advanced economies. The US market income Gini coefficient, a measure of how equally income is distributed across the population before government policies take effect, decreases by 22 percent after taxes and transfers like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The average reduction for high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is 37 percent.
This PIIE Chart is adapted from Jacob Funk Kirkegaard’s Policy Brief Tax Overhaul Risks Making the US Tax and Transfer System (Even) More Regressive.

the contributors at the Peterson Institute: https://piie.com/research/piie-charts/us-government-worst-reducing-inequality-all-high-income-oecd-countries [