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Income Taxes and Entrepreneurs' Use of Labor

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Author Info
Robert Carroll
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Mark Rider
Harvey S. Rosen

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Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of entrepreneurs' personal income tax situations on their use of labor. We analyze the income tax returns of a large number of sole proprietors before and after the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and determine how the substantial reductions in marginal tax rates associated with that law affected their decisions to hire labor and the size of their wage bills. We find that individual income taxes exert a statistically and quantitatively significant influence on the probability that an entrepreneur hires workers. Raising the entrepreneur's tax price' (one minus the marginal tax rate) by 10 percent raises the mean probability of hiring workers by about 12 percent. Further, conditional on hiring employees, taxes also influence the total wage payments to those workers. The elasticity of the median wage bill with respect to the tax price is about 0.37.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6578.

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Date of creation: May 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6578

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H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

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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.:
  1. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1993. "Small Business and Job Creation: Dissecting the Myth and Reassessing theFacts," NBER Working Papers 4492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Marc Cowling & Mark Taylor & Peter Mitchell, 2004. "Job Creators," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(5), pages 601-617, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Frank M. Fossen & Viktor Steiner, 2006. "Income Taxes and Entrepreneurial Choice: Empirical Evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 582, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Henrekson, Magnus & Sanandaji, Tino, 2008. "Entrepreneurship and the Theory of Taxation," Working Paper Series 732, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 19 Aug 2009. [Downloadable!]
  3. Ramana Nanda, 2008. "Entrepreneurship and the Discipline of External Finance," Harvard Business School Working Papers 08-047, Harvard Business School. [Downloadable!]
  4. Hansson, Åsa, 2009. "Are small business owners more successful in avoiding taxes: Evidence from Sweden," Working Papers 2009:6, Lund University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Mark Rider, 2006. "The Effect of Personal Income Tax Rates on Individual and Business Decisions - A Review of the Evidence," International Studies Program Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0615, International Studies Program, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. [Downloadable!]
  6. Cesaire Meh, 2005. "Entrepreneurship, Wealth Inequality, and Taxation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 8(3), pages 688-719, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Hansson, Åsa, 2008. "Income taxes and the probability to become self-employed: The case of Sweden," Ratio Working Papers 122, The Ratio Institute. [Downloadable!]
  8. Robert Carroll & Douglas Holtz-Eakin & Mark Rider & Harvey S. Rosen, 2000. "Microdata Panel Data and Public Policy: National and Cross-National Perspectives," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 29, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University. [Downloadable!]
  9. Alan Krueger & Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 1997. "Observations and Conjectures on the U.S. Employment Miracle," Working Papers 769, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Kevin Moore, 2004. "The effects of the 1986 and 1993 tax reforms on self-employment," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-05, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  11. Robert Carroll & Douglas Holtz-Eakin & Mark Rider & Harvey S. Rosen, 2000. "Personal Income Taxes and the Growth of Small Firms," NBER Working Papers 7980, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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