有明确的证据表明，公平在再分配中发挥着作用。每个人都想补偿别人的不幸，同时又允许别人享受自己努力的成果。这种公平考虑已经在政治经济学和最优所得税模型中引入，重点是收入获取。然而，实际的税收-福利制度是基于更多的信息。我们在基于几个特征的税收-福利计划中引入了公平性。新奇之处在于部分控制的引入。每个特征在控制程度上都是不同的，也就是说，通过努力可以改变的程度。结果是两个可验证的预测。首先，部分可控特征的税率要低于非可控标签的税率。其次，非可控特征对税后结果的总体影响应等于零。 We estimate implicit tax rates for different characteristics in 26 European countries (using tEU-SILC data) and the US (using CPS data). We find a robust tendency in all countries to compensate more for the uncontrollable composite characteristic (based on sex, age and disability in our study) compared to the partially controllable one (based on family composition, immigration status, unemployment and education level). We also estimate the degree of fairness of tax-benefit schemes in different countries. Only the Continental countries France and Luxembourg pass the fairness test, whereas the Baltic and Anglo-Saxon countries (including the US) perform worst.