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Corporate Income Tax, Legal Form of Organization, and Employment

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  • Daphne Chen
  • Shi Qi
  • Don Schlagenhauf

Abstract

A dynamic stochastic occupational choice model with heterogeneous agents is developed to evaluate the impact of a corporate income tax reduction on employment. In this framework, the key margin is the endogenous entrepreneurial choice of legal form of organization. A reduction in the corporate income tax burden encourages adoption of the C corporation legal form, which reduces capital constraints on firms. Improved capital reallocation increases overall productive efficiency in the economy and therefore expands the labor market. Relative to the benchmark economy, a corporate income tax cut can reduce the non-employment rate by up to 7 percent.

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  • Daphne Chen & Shi Qi & Don Schlagenhauf, 2018. "Corporate Income Tax, Legal Form of Organization, and Employment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 270-304, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:270-304
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/mac.20140103
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    3. Don schlagenhauf, 2019. "The Kansas Tax Experiment: The Matter of Legal Form of Organization," 2019 Meeting Papers 392, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Raei, Sepideh, 2023. "Output distortions and the choice of legal form of organization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    5. Liu, Xiufen & Fang, Hongsheng & Zhao, Lexin & Xu, Wenli, 2023. "Do VAT cuts help stabilize employment? Evidence from China’s VAT rate reform," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 190-207.
    6. Chung Tran & Sebastian Wende, 2022. "Dividend Imputation, Investment and Capital Accumulation in Open Economies," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2022-687, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    7. Francesco Furno, 2021. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Corporate Tax Reforms," Papers 2111.12799, arXiv.org.
    8. Antonio Estache & Beni Kouevi Gath, 2019. "Corporate Income Taxes and (Un-)Employment in the OECD," Working Papers ECARES 2019-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Benjamin Pugsley & Sebastian Dyrda, 2017. "Taxes, Regulations of Businesses and Evolution of Income Inequality in the US," 2017 Meeting Papers 1463, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Teegawende Zeida, 2022. "The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA): A Quantitative Evaluation of Key Provisions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 46, pages 74-97, October.
    11. Beatriz González, 2020. "Macroeconomics, firm dynamics and IPOs," Working Papers 2030, Banco de España.
    12. Lejour, Arjan & Massenz, Gabriella, 2020. "Income Shifting and Organizational Form Choice : Evidence from Europe," Discussion Paper 2020-013, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    13. Ege Can, 2022. "Income taxation, entrepreneurship, and incorporation status of self-employment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(5), pages 1260-1293, October.
    14. Bing Xu & Lili Li & Yan Liang & Mohib Ur Rahman, 2019. "Measuring Risk Allocation of Tax Burden for Small and Micro Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, January.
    15. Qi, Shi & Schlagenhauf, Don, 2021. "The Kansas tax experiment: The matter of legal form of organization," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
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    17. Li, Bing & Liu, Chang & Sun, Stephen Teng, 2021. "Do corporate income tax cuts decrease labor share? Regression discontinuity evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    18. E. Mark Curtis & Ryan A. Decker, 2018. "Entrepreneurship and State Taxation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2018-003, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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