Current policy discussion focuses primarily on the power of fiscal policy to reduce inequality. Yet,
comparable fiscal incidence analysis for twenty-eight low and middle income countries reveals that,
although fiscal systems are always equalizing, that is not always true for poverty. In Ethiopia,
Tanzania, Ghana, Nicaragua, and Guatemala the extreme poverty headcount ratio is higher after
taxes and transfers (excluding in-kind transfers) than before. In addition, to varying degrees, in
all countries a portion of the poor are net payers into the fiscal system and are thus impoverished
by the fiscal system. Consumption taxes are the main culprits of fiscally-induced impoverishment.
Net direct taxes are always equalizing and indirect taxes net of subsidies are equalizing in nineteen
countries of the twenty-eight. While spending on pre-school and primary school is pro-poor (i.e., the
per capita transfer declines with income) in almost all countries, pro-poor secondary school spending
is less prevalent, and tertiary education spending tends to be progressive only in relative terms (i.e.,
equalizing but not pro-poor). Health spending is always equalizing but not always pro-poor. More
unequal countries devote more resources to redistributive spending and appear to redistribute more.
The latter, however, is not a robust result across specifications.