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Discreteness and the Welfare Cost of Labour Supply Tax Distortions

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Author Info
Keshab Bhattarai (University of Hull)
John Whalley (Universities of Warwick and Western Ontario, and NBER)

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Abstract

We compare the welfare costs of tax distortions of labour supply in one and two member household discrete and continuous labour supply (leisure consumption) choice models. In the discrete models taxes induce a large response from a subset of the population, while the majority of the population exhibits unchanged behaviour. In contrast the majority of the population reacts to tax changes in continuous models. Models are made comparable by calibrating to the same aggregate uncompensated labour supply elasticities in discrete and continuous models. The welfare costs of similar taxes are significantly different when individuals face discrete labour supply choices than when they choose working hours continuously, and vary with tax rates in different ways. Analysis of results from these models show that discrete choice matters in the assessment of the costs of labour supply tax distortions.

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File URL: http://economics.uwo.ca/econref/WorkingPapers/researchreports/wp2002/wp2002_3.pdf
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Paper provided by University of Western Ontario, Department of Economics in its series UWO Department of Economics Working Papers with number 20023.

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Date of creation: May 2002
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Handle: RePEc:uwo:uwowop:20023

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Postal: Department of Economics, Reference Centre, Social Science Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2
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Keywords: Discreteness labour supply welfare taxes equilibrium

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  1. Richard Blundell, 1992. "Labour supply and taxation: a survey," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 15-40, January.
  2. Kahn, Shulamit & Lang, Kevin, 1991. "The Effect of Hours Constraints on Labor Supply Estimates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 605-11, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Piggott, John & Whalley, John, 1996. "The Tax Unit and Household Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(2), pages 398-418, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Stewart, M.B. & Swaffield, J.K., 1996. "Constraints on the Desired Hours of Work of British Men," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 468, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
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  5. Ian Walker & Ian Preston, 1999. "Welfare measurement in labour supply models with nonlinear budget constraints," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 343-361. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Dickens, William T & Lundberg, Shelly J, 1993. "Hours Restrictions and Labor Supply," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 34(1), pages 169-92, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Macurdy, T. & Green, D. & Paarsch, H., 1990. "Assessing Empirical Approaches For Analyzing Taxes And Labor Supply," Papers e-90-11, Stanford - Hoover Institution.
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  1. Olivier Bargain & Nicolas Moreau, 2002. "Is the collective model of labor supply useful for tax policy analysis ? A simulation exercise," DELTA Working Papers 2002-21, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Parry, Ian & Goulder, Lawrence & Williams III, Roberton, 1997. "When Can Carbon Abatement Policies Increase Welfare? The Fundamental Role of Distorted Factor Markets," Discussion Papers dp-97-18-rev, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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