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Payroll Taxes, Wages and Employment: Identification through Policy Changes

Author

Listed:
  • Guillermo Cruces

    (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - FCE - UNLP y CONICET)

  • Sebastian Galiani

    (Washington University in Saint Louis - United States.)

  • Susana Kidyba

    (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC) - Argentina)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of changes in payroll taxes on wages and employment in Argentina. The analysis, based on administrative data, focuses on the impact of a series of major changes in payroll taxes which varied across geographical areas. This setup offers two main advantages over previous studies. First, using longitudinal data, the variation in tax rates across space and time provides a plausible source of identification of their effects on employment and wages. Second, the use of legal tax rates for each area at each point in time provides a remedy for the measurement error bias raised by the use of empirical rates constructed from observed tax and wage bills. Once this bias is accounted for, the results indicate that changes in payroll tax rates are only partially shifted onto wages, and they point to the absence of any significant effect on employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Guillermo Cruces & Sebastian Galiani & Susana Kidyba, 2010. "Payroll Taxes, Wages and Employment: Identification through Policy Changes," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0093, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    • Handle: RePEc:dls:wpaper:0093
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nickell, Stephen & Layard, Richard, 1999. "Labor market institutions and economic performance," Handbook of Labor Economics,in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 3029-3084 Elsevier.
    2. Cruces, Guillermo & Galiani, Sebastian & Kidyba, Susana, 2010. "Payroll taxes, wages and employment: Identification through policy changes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 743-749, August.
    3. Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice, 2003. "The labor market effects of payroll taxes in a middle-income country: evidence from Colombia," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 306, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
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    6. Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice, 2003. "The labor market effects of payroll taxes in a middle-income country: evidence from Colombia," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0306, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    7. Jonathan Gruber & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensation Insurance," NBER Chapters,in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 111-144 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Holmlund, Bertil, 1983. " Payroll Taxes and Wage Inflation: The Swedish Experience," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(1), pages 1-15.
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    12. Murphy, Kevin J., 2007. "The impact of unemployment insurance taxes on wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 457-484, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marcelo Bergolo & Guillermo Cruces, 2014. "Work and tax evasion incentive effects of social insurance programs. Evidence from an employment-based benefit extension," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0161, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    2. Jonas Månsson & A. Quoreshi, 2015. "Evaluating regional cuts in the payroll tax from a firm perspective," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(2), pages 323-347, March.
    3. Hildegunn Ekroll Stokke, 2015. "Regional payroll tax cuts and individual wages: Heterogeneous effects across education groups," Working Paper Series 16815, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    4. Cruces, Guillermo & Galiani, Sebastian & Kidyba, Susana, 2010. "Payroll taxes, wages and employment: Identification through policy changes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 743-749, August.
    5. Richard M. Bird & Michael Smart, 2012. "Financing Social Expenditures in Developing Countries: Payroll or Value Added Taxes?," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1206, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    6. repec:col:000425:015829 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Leonardo Fabio Morales & Carlos Medina, 2017. "Assessing the Effect of Payroll Taxes on Formal Employment: The Case of the 2012 Tax Reform in Colombia," ECONOMIA JOURNAL, THE LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2017), pages 75-124, November.
    8. Scherer, C.R., 2015. "Payroll tax reduction in Brazil : Effects on employment and wages," ISS Working Papers - General Series 602, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    9. Arturo Antón, 2014. "The effect of payroll taxes on employment and wages under high labor informality," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Cervini-Plá, María & Ramos, Xavier & Ignacio Silva, José, 2014. "Wage effects of non-wage labour costs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 113-137.
    11. Shiferaw, Admasu & Bedi, Arjun S. & Söderbom, Mans & Alemu, Getnet, 2017. "Social Insurance Reform and Labor Market Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia," IZA Discussion Papers 10903, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    12. Eduardo Lora & Johanna Fajardo-González, 2016. "Employment and taxes in Latin America: An empirical study of the effects of payroll, corporate income and value-added taxes on labor outcomes," REVISTA CUADERNOS DE ECONOMÍA, UN - RCE - CID, vol. 35(Especial ), pages 75-117, January.
    13. repec:spr:laecrv:v:27:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s40503-017-0048-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Sonia A. Agudelo & Hector Sala, 2016. "Wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 24(1), pages 99-134, January.
    15. Santiago Levy & Norbert Schady, 2013. "Latin America's Social Policy Challenge: Education, Social Insurance, Redistribution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 193-218, Spring.
    16. Skedinger, Per, 2014. "Effects of Payroll Tax Cuts for Young Workers," Working Paper Series 1031, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    17. repec:eur:ejmsjr:345 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:ilo:ilowps:485422 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Bertranou, Fabio. & Casanova, Luis. & Jiménez, Maribel. & Jiménez, Mónica., 2014. "Informality and employment quality in Argentina : country case study on labour market segmentation," ILO Working Papers 994854223402676, International Labour Organization.
    20. Bergolo, Marcelo & Cruces, Guillermo, 2014. "Work and tax evasion incentive effects of social insurance programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 211-228.

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    Keywords

    Argentina; payroll taxes; employment; wages;

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