Top Incomes and Progressive Taxation in Greece 1927-2006

FACUNDO ALVAREDO; DIMITRIS MAVRIDIS

Crete

Conferencia; Ninth Conference on Research and Economic Theory and Econometrics; 2010

Economics Department, Athens University of Economics and Business

We use the Greek tax code as a measurement instrument to detect the top tail of the income distribution, covering (with gaps) the period from 1927 to 2006. • Raw data: tabulations showing the number of taxpayers and total income by income brackets. Interwar period: sources for only two years. Post WWII: NSSG tabulations, continued by the GSIS (Ministry of Finance). We relate these tabulations with a control total for: a) Estimates of the tax units; b) A measure of the aggregate disposable income in the economy. We then compute shares of top incomes.