Study on Distributional Impact Assessment
This study aims at understanding the practice of EU Member States in terms of distribution impact assessment (DIA) of budgetary measures and in the preparation of the draft budgetary plans (DBPs). It is also intended at understanding the reasons that limit the use of DIA in the budget preparation process as well as the degree of similarity in the DIA use. Finally, it aims at providing suggestions and recommendations for increasing the use of DIA and the design of a possible EU common framework. The study shows that even if DIA is widely adopted by the Member States, it is rarely included in the DBP due to organisational issues (e.g., lack of time and no specific request from the ministerial hierarchy). To increase the inclusion of DIA in the DBP, the European Commission could encourage its inclusion supplying templates, sharing good practice and hosting workshops for officials. The EU common framework could be based on a set of proposals split into two levels: basic compliance and advanced. The basic level can be satisfied using Euromod, while for the advanced one an improvement of the quality of the data and of the estimates to account for economic feedbacks is needed.
The project is funded through a call for tender of the European Commission (VT/2020/02).
Publication:
European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Bazoli, N., Burlacu, S., Fiorio, C., et al. (2022). Study on distributional impact assessment, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2767/511644
Based on this study, the European Commission issued a Communication to on “Better assessing the distributional impact of Member States’ policies” (COM(2022) 494 final, downloadable here).
People
Publications
European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Bazoli, N., Burlacu, S., Fiorio, C., et al. (2022). Study on distributional impact assessment, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2767/511644
Bazoli, N., Fiorio, C., Marzadro, S., Pycroft, J., Vergolini, L., 2023. “Equal Focus on Inequality? Approaches to Distributional Impact Assessment in the National Budget Process Across the EU”, Journal of Common Market Studies, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13557