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Taxation and International Migration of Superstars: Evidence from the European Football Market

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  • Henrik Kleven
  • Camille Landais
  • Emmanuel Saez

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of top earnings tax rates on the international migration of football players in Europe. We construct a panel dataset of top earnings tax rates, football player careers, and club performances in the first leagues of 14 Western European countries since 1985. We identify the effects of top earnings tax rates on migration using a number of tax and institutional changes: (a) the 1995 Bosman ruling which liberalized the European football market, (b) top tax rate reforms within countries, and (c) special tax schemes offering preferential tax rates to immigrant football players. We start by presenting reduced-form graphical evidence showing large and compelling migration responses to country-specific tax reforms and labor market regulation. We then develop a multinomial regression framework to exploit all sources of tax variation simultaneously. Our results show that (i) the overall location responses to the net-of-tax rate is positive and large, with an elasticity of the number of foreign players to the net-of-tax rate around one (and an elasticity of the number of domestic players around .15), (ii) location elasticities are even larger at the top of the ability distribution, but negative at the bottom due to ability sorting effects, and (iii) cross-tax effects of foreign players on domestic players (and vice versa) are negative and quite strong due to displacement effects. Those results can be rationalized in a simple model of migration and taxation with rigid labor demand.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 16545.

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Date of creation: Nov 2010
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16545

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References

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  1. CREMER, Helmuth & FOURGEAUD, Virginie & LEITE MONTEIRO, Manuel & MARCHAND, Maurice, 1995. "Mobility and Redistribution : A Survey," CORE Discussion Papers 1995066, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  2. Emmanuel Saez & Joel B. Slemrod & Seth H. Giertz, 2009. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," NBER Working Papers 15012, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Feess, Eberhard & Muehlheusser, Gerd, 2002. "Transfer Fee Regulations in European Football," IZA Discussion Papers 423, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Emmanuel Saez & Manos Matsaganis & Panos Tsakloglou, 2010. "Earnings Determination and Taxes: Evidence from a Cohort Based Payroll Tax Reform in Greece," NBER Working Papers 15745, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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  1. Taux marginal d’imposition et mobilité des travailleurs: l’exemple du marché du football?
    by contact@captaineconomics.fr (Le Captain') in Captain Economics on 2012-06-11 12:15:50
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Cited by:
  1. Landier, Augustin & Plantin, Guillaume, 2011. "Inequality, tax avoidance and financial instability," TSE Working Papers 11-282, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
  2. Alex Bryson & Simmons, R. & Rossi, G., 2012. "Why Are Migrants Paid More?," NIESR Discussion Papers 388, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
  3. Duncan, Denvil & Peter, Klara Sabirianova, 2012. "Unequal Inequalities: Do Progressive Taxes Reduce Income Inequality?," IZA Discussion Papers 6910, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Giertz, Seth H. & Tosun, Mehmet S., 2012. "Migration Elasticities, Fiscal Federalism and the Ability of States to Redistribute Income," IZA Discussion Papers 6798, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Protte, Benjamin, 2012. "How does Economic Integration Change Personal Income Taxation? Evidence from a new Index of Potential Labor Mobility," Working Papers 12-20, University of Mannheim, Department of Economics.
  6. Marco A. Haan & Ruud H. Koning & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2012. "The Effects of Institutional Change in European Soccer," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Department of Statistics and Economics, vol. 232(3), pages 318-335, May.
  7. Stefano Vecchione & Francesco Addesa, 2012. "Il Regime Fiscale Dei Calciatori: Un’Analisi Economica Comparata," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 8(3), pages 49-71, dicembre.
  8. Bastani, Spencer & Selin, Håkan, 2011. "Bunching and Non-Bunching at Kink Points of the Swedish Tax schedule," Working Paper Series, Center for Fiscal Studies 2011:12, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
  9. Shafik Hebous, 2011. "Money at the Docks of Tax Havens: A Guide," CESifo Working Paper Series 3587, CESifo Group Munich.
  10. Hendel, Ulrich, 2012. "The Influence of Altruistic Preferences on the Race to the Bottom of Welfare States," Discussion Papers in Economics 13999, University of Munich, Department of Economics.

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