IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/scandj/v120y2018i3p943-973.html

Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence from Changes in Municipal Income Tax Rates in Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Tuomas Matikka

Abstract

The elasticity of taxable income (ETI) is a key parameter in income tax analysis, in terms of both efficiency and tax revenue. In this paper, I use Finnish data to analyze the ETI. I use changes in flat municipal income tax rates as an instrument for overall changes in marginal tax rates. This instrument is not a function of individual income, and thus the ETI estimates are less susceptible to bias caused by differential trends across the income distribution. In general, instruments used in previous studies do not have this feature. My preferred estimate for the average ETI is 0.21.

Suggested Citation

  • Tuomas Matikka, 2018. "Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence from Changes in Municipal Income Tax Rates in Finland," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(3), pages 943-973, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:120:y:2018:i:3:p:943-973
    DOI: 10.1111/sjoe.12236
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12236
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/sjoe.12236?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laun, Lisa, 2019. "In-work benefits across Europe," Working Paper Series 2019:16, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    2. Michaël Sicsic, 2022. "Does labour income react more to income tax or means‐tested benefits reforms?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 291-319, September.
    3. Selin Håkan, 2024. "Taxing Dividends in a Dual Income Tax System: The Nordic Experience with the Income Splitting Rules," Nordic Tax Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2024(s1), pages 83-94.
    4. Frank M. Fossen & Viktor Steiner, 2018. "The Tax†rate Elasticity of Local Business Profits," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 19(2), pages 162-189, May.
    5. Kristoffer Berg & Thor O. Thoresen, 2020. "Problematic response margins in the estimation of the elasticity of taxable income," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(3), pages 721-752, June.
    6. Lundberg, Jacob, 2024. "Top Income Taxation: Efficiency, Social Welfare and the Laffer Curve," Working Paper Series 1492, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    7. Varjonen-Ollus, Reetta, 2025. "Behavioural Effects of a Top Marginal Income Tax Rate Increase," Working Papers 180, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Carina Neisser, 2021. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: A Meta-Regression Analysis [The top 1% in international and historical perspective]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(640), pages 3365-3391.
    9. Mangyo, Eiji & Haapanen, Mika & Böckerman, Petri, 2024. "Born under the Bad Sign: Intergenerational Effects of the Finnish Great Depression of the Early 1990s," IZA Discussion Papers 16750, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Spencer Bastani, 2025. "The marginal value of public funds: a brief guide and application to tax policy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(4), pages 919-956, August.
    11. Dingquan Miao & Håkan Selin & Martin Söderström, 2025. "Earnings Responses to Even Higher Taxes," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(667), pages 838-860.
    12. Engström, Per & Nordblom, Katarina & Stefansson, Arnaldur, 2018. "Multiple Misbehaving:Loss Averse and Inattentive to Monetary Incentives," Working Papers in Economics 729, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    13. Bohne, Albrecht & Nimczik, Jan Sebastian, 2018. "Information Frictions and Learning Dynamics: Evidence from Tax Avoidance in Ecuador," IZA Discussion Papers 11536, IZA Network @ LISER.
    14. Joerg Paetzold, 2019. "How do taxpayers respond to a large kink? Evidence on earnings and deduction behavior from Austria," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(1), pages 167-197, February.
    15. Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki & Koski, Heli & Kässi, Otto & Pajarinen, Mika & Valkonen, Tarmo & Hokkanen, Marja & Hyvönen, Noora & Koivusalo, Elina & Laaksonen, Jarno & Laitinen, Juha & Nyström, Enni, 2020. "The Size of the Digital Economy in Finland and Its Impact on Taxation," ETLA Reports 106, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    16. Bastani, Spencer, 2023. "The marginal cost of public funds: A brief guide," Working Paper Series 2023:14, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    17. Boris Cournède & Jean-Marc Fournier & Peter Hoeller, 2018. "Public finance structure and inclusive growth," OECD Economic Policy Papers 25, OECD Publishing.
    18. Miguel Almunia & Jarkko Harju & Kaisa Kotakorpi & Janne Tukiainen & Jouko Verho, 2019. "Expanding access to administrative data: the case of tax authorities in Finland and the UK," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(3), pages 661-676, June.
    19. Michaël Sicsic, 2023. "L’élasticité de l’offre de travail et des revenus dans la littérature. Une analyse comparative des méthodes et des résultats sur données microéconomiques," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(4), pages 5-40.
    20. Engström, Per & Nordblom, Katarina & Stefánsson, Arnaldur, 2022. "Loss aversion and indifference to tax rates: Evidence from tax filing data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 287-311.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:120:y:2018:i:3:p:943-973. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9442 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.