Redistribution - By population group - EUROMOD estimates

The table shows the total redistribution of the tax benefit system (labelled as all), computed as the Gini coefficient of initial income (original income + pensions) minus the Gini coefficient of disposable income. Since Gini coefficients range between 0 (no inequality) and 1 (maximum inequality), redistribution theoretically ranges from -1 to 1. However, it usually shows positive values, meaning that the Gini coefficient of initial income is higher (more inequal distribution) than the Gini coefficient of disposable income (more equal distribution).

In turn, total redistribution (RE) is decomposed by two non-overlapping population groups (age grup and sex), as follows:

RE = C + WA + E = M + F

where:

• C is the contribution to redistribution of children
• WA is the contribution to redistribution of working-age individuals
• E is the contribution to redistribution of the elderly
• M is the contribution to redistribution of males
• F is the contribution to redistribution of females

The contribution of each group is computed by summing the contribution of all individuals within the group, which is in turn computed using the "leave-behind" representation of the Gini index as proposed by Bárcena-Martín et al. (2021, 2022, 2025) and implemented in Ricci et al. (2025). In particular, each individual contribution represents the extent to which individual i is left behind relative to others in the income distribution, and it's calculated as:

LB(i) =(1/nμ) * Σ_j>iⁿ  (x_j - x_i)

where

• n is the size of the population
• µ is mean income
• the summation accounts for the income (x) differences between individual, i, and all those ranked higher, j. 

This formulation captures how far an individual is left behind in proportional terms. 

After computing these individual contributions, the contribution of each group (C, WA, E, M, F) is computed as follows within the group:

• The Gini coefficient for initial income is computed as the average of the contributions in terms of initial income of all the individuals beloinging to the corresponding group.
• The Gini coefficient for disposable income is computed as the average of the contributions in terms of disposable income of all the individuals beloinging to the corresponding group.
• Redistribution is computed as the difference between the Gini of initial income and the Gini of disposable income.

All the income concepts are equivalised. 

For more information on the economic and socio-demographic concepts used, see the EUROMOD Glossary and the list of breakdown variables.

References:

García-Pardo, F., Bárcena-Martin, E., & Pérez-Moreno, S. (2021). Measuring the ‘leaving no one behind’principle in the European countries: an AROPE-based fuzzy logic approach. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 409, 170-185

Bárcena-Martin, E., & García-Pardo, F. (2022). An axiomatic approach to measure the ‘Leave no one behind’principle. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 447, 147-154

Bárcena-Martín, E. M., García-Pardo, F., & Van Kerm, P. (2025), Relative Income Deprivation in a Dynamic Perspective, EQUALITAS Working Paper No. 84

Ricci, M., Kiss, A., Van Herck, K. (2025), "Fiscal costs and redistributive effects of reduced VAT rates: a detailed analysis by product and population groups ", forthcoming