IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/btx/wpaper/1216.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Which Workers Bear the Burden of Corporate Taxation and Which Firms Can Pass It On? Micro Evidence from Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Clemens Fuest

    (Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, University of Cologne, CESifo and IZA)

  • Andreas Peichl

    (IZA, University of Cologne, ISER and CESifo)

  • Sebastian Siegloch

    (IZA and the University of Cologne)

Abstract

In this paper we provide empirical evidence on the wage incidence of the German business tax, which is set at the municipal level. For our analysis, we use a very rich administrative linked employer-employee panel, covering 11 years, and link it to data on the business tax rates of about 11,500 German municipalities. On average 8% of the municipalities adjust their business tax rate per year. We are able to exploit multiple quasi-natural experiments to identify the tax incidence on wages. The detailed administrative data allow us to estimate heterogenous incidence e ects and to explore different channels of how the business tax burden is passed on. We nd a wage elasticity with respect to the e ective marginal tax rate of -0.18. Low-skilled labor shares a relatively higher burden as well as workers in firms with non-binding sectoral collective agreements or firm level bargaining contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2012. "Which Workers Bear the Burden of Corporate Taxation and Which Firms Can Pass It On? Micro Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 1216, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    • Handle: RePEc:btx:wpaper:1216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Business_Taxation/Docs/WP1216.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nadja Dwenger & Pia Rattenhuber & Viktor Steiner, 2019. "Sharing the Burden? Empirical Evidence on Corporate Tax Incidence," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 107-140, November.
    2. Thiess Büttner, 1999. "Determinants of Tax Rates in Local Capital Income Taxation: A Theoretical Model and Evidence from Germany," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 56(3/4), pages 363-363, July.
    3. Bradford, David F., 1978. "Factor prices may be constant but factor returns are not," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 199-203.
    4. Arulampalam, Wiji & Devereux, Michael P. & Maffini, Giorgia, 2012. "The direct incidence of corporate income tax on wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1038-1054.
    5. Arnold C. Harberger, 1962. "The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70, pages 215-215.
    6. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "Who Bears the Corporate Tax? A Review of What We Know," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 1-40, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gravelle Jane G & Smetters Kent A., 2006. "Does the Open Economy Assumption Really Mean That Labor Bears the Burden of a Capital Income Tax?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-44, August.
    8. Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2012. "Accounting for labor demand effects in structural labor supply models," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 129-138.
    9. Griliches, Zvi, 1969. "Capital-Skill Complementarity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(4), pages 465-468, November.
    10. Thomas K. Bauer & Tanja Kasten & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2012. "Business taxation and wages: evidence from individual panel data," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 153-12, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.
    11. Liu, Li & Altshuler, Rosanne, 2013. "Measuring the Burden of the Corporate Income Tax Under Imperfect Competition," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 215-237, March.
    12. Holger Alda & Stefan Bender & Hermann Gartner, 2005. "European Data Watch: The linked employer-employee dataset created from the IAB establishment panel and the process-produced data of the IAB (LIAB)," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 125(2), pages 327-336.
    13. Frank Fossen & Stefan Bach, 2008. "Reforming the German Local Business Tax - Lessons from an International Comparison and a Microsimulation Analysis," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 64(2), pages 245-272, June.
    14. Jennifer C. Gravelle, 2010. "Corporate Tax Incidence: Review of General Equilibrium Estimates and Analysis: Working Paper 2010-03," Working Papers 21486, Congressional Budget Office.
    15. Mutti, John & Grubert, Harry, 1985. "The taxation of capital income in an open economy: the importance of resident-nonresident tax treatment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 291-309, August.
    16. Alison Felix, 2007. "Passing the burden: corporate tax incidence in open economies," Regional Research Working Paper RRWP 07-01, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    17. William C. Randolph, 2006. "International Burdens of the Corporate Income Tax: Working Paper 2006-09," Working Papers 18067, Congressional Budget Office.
    18. R. Alison Felix, 2007. "Passing the Burden: Corporate Tax Incidence in Open Economies," LIS Working papers 468, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    19. R. Alison Felix & James R. Hines, Jr., 2009. "Corporate Taxes and Union Wages in the United States," NBER Working Papers 15263, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Maiterth Ralf & Zwick Markus, 2006. "A Local Income and Corporation Tax as an Alternative to the German Local Business Tax: An Empirical Analysis for Selected Municipalities," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 226(3), pages 285-307, June.
    21. Alda, Holger & Bender, Stefan & Gartner, Hermann, 2005. "The linked employer-employee dataset of the IAB (LIAB)," IAB-Discussion Paper 200506, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Barrios, Salvador & Nicodème, Gaëtan & Sanchez Fuentes, Antonio Jesus, 2014. "Effective Corporate Taxation, Tax Incidence and Tax Reforms: Evidence from OECD Countries," CEPR Discussion Papers 10198, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Liu, Li & Altshuler, Rosanne, 2013. "Measuring the Burden of the Corporate Income Tax Under Imperfect Competition," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 215-237, March.
    3. Nadja Dwenger & Pia Rattenhuber & Viktor Steiner, 2019. "Sharing the Burden? Empirical Evidence on Corporate Tax Incidence," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 107-140, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peichl, Andreas & Fuest, Clemens & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2013. "Wage Incidence of Local Corporate Taxation - Micro Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79916, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Nadja Dwenger & Pia Rattenhuber & Viktor Steiner, 2019. "Sharing the Burden? Empirical Evidence on Corporate Tax Incidence," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 107-140, November.
    3. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2018. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 393-418, February.
    4. Fuest, Clemens & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages?," IZA Discussion Papers 9606, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Liu, Li & Altshuler, Rosanne, 2013. "Measuring the Burden of the Corporate Income Tax Under Imperfect Competition," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 215-237, March.
    6. Thomas K. Bauer & Tanja Kasten & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2017. "Business Taxation and Wages: Redistribution and Asymmetric Effects," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201732, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    7. Nils aus dem Moore, 2014. "Shifting the Burden of Corporate Taxes: Heterogeneity in Direct Wage Incidence," Ruhr Economic Papers 0531, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    8. aus dem Moore, Nils, 2014. "Shifting the Burden of Corporate Taxes: Heterogeneity in Direct Wage Incidence," Ruhr Economic Papers 531, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. repec:zbw:rwirep:0531 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Nils aus dem Moore & Tanja Kasten & Christoph M. Schmidt, 2014. "Do Wages Rise when Corporate Taxes Fall? - Evidence from Germany’s Tax Reform 2000," Ruhr Economic Papers 0532, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    11. repec:zbw:rwirep:0532 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Siegloch, Sebastian, 2014. "Employment Effects of Local Business Taxes," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100325, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. aus dem Moore, Nils & Kasten, Tanja & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2014. "Do Wages Rise when Corporate Taxes Fall? - Evidence from Germany's Tax Reform 2000," Ruhr Economic Papers 532, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    14. Knaisch, Jonas & Pöschel, Carla, 2021. "Corporate Tax Incidence and Wages: A Meta-Regression Analysis," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 262, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre, revised 2021.
    15. Céline Azémar & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2015. "Country characteristics and the incidence of capital income taxation on wages: An empirical assessment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(5), pages 1762-1802, December.
    16. R. Alison Felix & James R. Hines, 2022. "Corporate taxes and union wages in the United States," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(6), pages 1450-1494, December.
    17. Nelly Exbrayat & Benny Geys, 2016. "Economic Integration, Corporate Tax Incidence and Fiscal Compensation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(11), pages 1792-1811, November.
    18. Arulampalam, Wiji & Devereux, Michael P. & Maffini, Giorgia, 2012. "The direct incidence of corporate income tax on wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1038-1054.
    19. Kenneth J. McKenzie & Ergete Ferede, 2017. "The Incidence of the Corporate Income Tax on Wages: Evidence from Canadian Provinces," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 10(7), April.
    20. Li, Guangzhong & Wu, Cen & Zheng, Ying, 2020. "Employee protection and the tax sensitivity of wages: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    21. Thomas K. Bauer & Tanja Kasten & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2012. "Business taxation and wages: evidence from individual panel data," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 153-12, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.
    22. Samiksha Agarwal & Lekha Chakraborty, 2019. "Business Taxation in an Emerging Economy: Analysing Corporate Tax Incidence," Review of European Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(2), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business taxation; wage incidence; microdata; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

    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:btx:wpaper:1216. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Dongxian Guo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sbsoxuk.html .

    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.