Macro & fiscal policy

Last Tuesday, November 28th, we talked about our book “Un País Posible: Manual de Reformas Políticamente Viables” (Un País Posible: A Handbook of Politically Viable Reforms) thanks to the invitation of the Harvard Kennedy School Spain Alumni Network. The conversation counted with the interventions of Toni Roldán, Miguel Almunia, Marta Suárez-Varela and Antonio Cabrales and […]

Spain has practically the same real per capita income as 15 years ago, while other countries around us are much richer than they were then. This means that over the last eighteen years we have not improved our average standard of living. We are therefore on the road to two lost decades. There are many […]

Key ideas → The use of tax cuts and generalized subsidies was an emergency measure in a situation that demanded rapid responses to curb the escalation of inflation, but it had a limited impact on the households that suffer the most, probably ended up in the pockets that needed it least, has meant an increase […]

Inflation is causing a severe loss of purchasing power for many families in Spain, especially those on lower incomes. In response to this problem, on 1 January 2023 the Spanish government decided to cut VAT on essential foodstuffs from 4% to 0%, while other basic foods (such as uncooked pasta or oil) went from 10% […]

Only 8.3% of households receive any energy social bonus, even though 14.3% reported having problems keeping their home at an adequate temperature in 2021, the latest available data. This percentage only rises to 17% among the third of households with the lowest income, and falls rapidly as we look at middle- and upper-middle-class households, covering […]

The progressivity of the Spanish tax system rests mainly on personal income tax (IRPF). However, the marginal rate that expresses this progressivity behaves erratically: it goes from 0% up to 15,000 euros to increasing by 43 points at low income levels, and then falls again for middle incomes. The most extreme example of this anomaly […]

En dos frases → La rebaja del precio de la electricidad en 2022, mayor para los hogares de menor poder adquisitivo, ha aliviado el peso desproporcionado que la subida de alimentos y gas han tenido sobre estos hogares específicos. → Además, el aumento en los precios de bienes y servicios como restaurantes, hoteles, transporte y […]

This policy brief is a summary of the academic working paper by Ángel Martínez Jorge and Javier Martínez Santos, which you can find here. Sugar taxes have become the benchmark measure to discourage the consumption of a product considered to be strongly associated with obesity, especially childhood obesity. In 2021 Spain raised VAT from 10% […]

Los impuestos sobre el azúcar se han consolidado como medida de referencia para desincentivar el consumo de un producto que se considera fuertemente asociado a la obesidad, especialmente la infantil. En 2021 España aumentó el IVA del 10% al 21% para las bebidas azucaradas y edulcoradas. En este webinar, EsadeEcPol presentará la primera evaluación metodológicamente rigurosa del […]

Bruegel’s new director Jeromin Zettelmeyer talks in this video podcast with our director Toni Roldán about policy responses to the current energy crisis and its implications beyond the short term for Europe as a whole. Although much progress has been made in European integration, according to Zettelmeyer the unfinished business is banking union and financial […]

In this paper we evaluate the tax on sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages by exploiting a natural quasi-experiment in Spain: in 2021 an increase in Value Added Tax was introduced in all regions of Spain except a few that do not have VAT. These regions serve as a control group, offering a unique opportunity in […]