Partisanship and the nexus between regressive taxation and the welfare state

Hanna Kleider, Joseph Ganderson, Julian Limberg, Department of Political Economy, s College London, Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan

Journal of European Social Policy

Published online on December 16, 2025

Abstract

Journal of European Social Policy, Ahead of Print.
Regressive consumption taxes - especially value-added taxes (VATs) - are often seen as a “money machine”: they raise substantial revenue while sparing mobile capital, and thus are thought to help governments sustain generous welfare states under fiscal ...