L’élasticité de l’offre de travail et des revenus dans la littérature. Une analyse comparative des méthodes et des résultats sur données microéconomiques

The elasticity of labour supply is a key parameter for evaluating public policies or calibrating macroeconomic models. This article provides a review of the international literature on labour supply and income elasticities with respect to taxation. The different estimation methods are presented (structural and reduced form), with a particular focus on the ETI (elasticity of taxable income) method, which has been developed rapidly over the last decade. I propose a classification of the sources of heterogeneity (according to the margin studied, the type of population, the type of reform, the country or the timing) and present the results obtained in France and internationally in the light of this classification. Explanations for the low elasticities estimated in microeconomic data, particularly in comparison with the elasticities used in macroeconomic models, are given, as well as applications of the use of elasticities for normative and policy analysis.