Hansson, Åsa () (Department of Economics, Lund University)
Abstract
The elasticity of taxable income with respect to net-of-tax rate is key in evaluating tax policies and predicting tax revenue effects. This paper estimates the elasticity of taxable income for Swedish taxpayers using two different approaches and a number of control variables using the 1990/1991 tax reform as a “natural experiment“. The preferred elasticity estimates fall in the range of 0.4 to 0.5, numbers comparable with recent estimates for the U.S., but higher than most estimates of the labor supply elasticity in Sweden. Therefore, tax policy evaluations based on labor supply elasticities are likely to underestimate taxpayer response to tax rate changes and to overestimate potential tax revenues from tax rate increases. Re-estimating the deadweight loss of labor taxation using my estimates of elasticity of taxable income, I find that deadweight loss may be substantially higher than suggested by estimates based on labor supply elasticities.
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Paper provided by Lund University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
2004:5.
Length: 32 pages Date of creation: 02 Feb 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2004_005
Contact details of provider: Postal: Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Box 7082, S-220 07 Lund,Sweden Phone: +46 +46 222 0000 Fax: +46 +46 2224613 Web page: http://www.nek.lu.se/ More information through EDIRC
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Arnold Harberger, 1964.
"Taxation, Resource Allocation, and Welfare,"
NBER Chapters,
in: The Role of Direct and Indirect Taxes in the Federal Reserve System, pages 25-80
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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