IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dlw/wpaper/14-16.html

How Fiscal Policies Reduce Labor Force Participation In Open Economies: Evidence On Tax Competition And Compensation Hypotheses

Author

Listed:
  • Stacie Beck

    (Department of Economics, University of Delaware)

  • Soodong Park

Abstract

The tax competition hypothesis is that market integration places downward pressure on capital taxes and social expenditures. The compensation hypothesis asserts that market integration results in increased social expenditures and higher tax burdens. Using panel data over 1980-2012 from 26 OECD countries, we found evidence of their coexistence and interaction. We find that the negative effects of social spending and tax policy on labor force participation are heightened in open economies, with a stronger impact from compensative social expenditures. Increased social expenditures reduce labor force participation directly and also indirectly through a higher labor tax burden.

Suggested Citation

  • Stacie Beck & Soodong Park, 2014. "How Fiscal Policies Reduce Labor Force Participation In Open Economies: Evidence On Tax Competition And Compensation Hypotheses," Working Papers 14-16, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:dlw:wpaper:14-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lerner.udel.edu/sites/default/files/ECON/PDFs/RePEc/dlw/WorkingPapers/2014/UDWP2014-16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas Bretschger & Frank Hettich, 2005. "Globalization and International Tax Competition: Empirical Evidence Based on Effective Tax Rates," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 20, pages 530-542.
    2. Steven J. Davis & Magnus Henrekson, 2004. "Tax Effects on Work Activity, Industry Mix and Shadow Economy Size: Evidence from Rich-Country Comparisons," NBER Working Papers 10509, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bucovetsky, Sam & Wilson, John Douglas, 1991. "Tax competition with two tax instruments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 333-350, November.
    4. Richard Blundell & Alan Duncan & Costas Meghir, 1998. "Estimating Labor Supply Responses Using Tax Reforms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(4), pages 827-862, July.
    5. Cameron, David R., 1978. "The Expansion of the Public Economy: A Comparative Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 1243-1261, December.
    6. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    7. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Series Working Papers 2001-W21, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Ekrame Boubtane & Dramane Coulibaly & Christophe Rault, 2013. "Immigration, Growth, and Unemployment: Panel VAR Evidence from OECD Countries," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(4), pages 399-420, December.
    9. Ozlem Onaran & Valerie Boesch & Markus Leibrecht, 2012. "How Does Globalization Affect The Implicit Tax Rates On Labor Income, Capital Income, And Consumption In The European Union?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(4), pages 880-904, October.
    10. Duane Swank, 1998. "Funding the Welfare State: Globalization and the Taxation of Business in Advanced Market Economies," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 46(4), pages 671-692, September.
    11. Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka, 2004. "Capital Income Taxation in the Globalized World," NBER Working Papers 10630, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler & Jonathan Temple, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Papers 2001-W21, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    13. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    14. Bucovetsky, S., 1991. "Asymmetric tax competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 167-181, September.
    15. Mendoza, Enrique G. & Razin, Assaf & Tesar, Linda L., 1994. "Effective tax rates in macroeconomics: Cross-country estimates of tax rates on factor incomes and consumption," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 297-323, December.
    16. Mieszkowski, Peter & Zodrow, George R, 1989. "Taxation and the Tiebout Model: The Differential Effects of Head Taxes, Taxes on Land Rents, and Property Taxes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 1098-1146, September.
    17. Hannes Winner, 2005. "Has Tax Competition Emerged in OECD Countries? Evidence from Panel Data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(5), pages 667-687, September.
    18. Damiaan Persyn & Joakim Westerlund, 2008. "Error-correction–based cointegration tests for panel data," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 8(2), pages 232-241, June.
    19. Dreher, Axel, 2006. "The influence of globalization on taxes and social policy: An empirical analysis for OECD countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 179-201, March.
    20. Thomas Eichner & Thorsten Upmann, 2012. "Labor markets and capital tax competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(2), pages 203-215, April.
    21. Love, Inessa & Zicchino, Lea, 2006. "Financial development and dynamic investment behavior: Evidence from panel VAR," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 190-210, May.
    22. Edward C. Prescott, 2004. "Why do Americans work so much more than Europeans?," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 28(Jul), pages 2-13.
    23. Simula, Laurent & Trannoy, Alain, 2010. "Optimal income tax under the threat of migration by top-income earners," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 163-173, February.
    24. Antonis Adam & Pantelis Kammas, 2007. "Tax policies in a globalized world: Is it politics after all?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 321-341, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Adam, Antonis & Kammas, Pantelis & Lagou, Athina, 2013. "The effect of globalization on capital taxation: What have we learned after 20years of empirical studies?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 199-209.
    2. Michael P. Devereux & Simon Loretz, 2013. "What Do We Know About Corporate Tax Competition?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(3), pages 745-774, September.
    3. Süreyya Yilmaz Ozekenci & Cansu Unver Erbas & Suzan Dsouza, 2025. "ESG Resilience Amid Financial Distress: the Role of Board Gender Diversity in EU Firms," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2025(4), pages 470-494.
    4. Joan Costa-Font & Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto, 2023. "‘Investing’ in care for old age? An examination of long-term care expenditure dynamics and its spillovers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 1-30, January.
    5. Ozlem Onaran & Valerie Boesch & Markus Leibrecht, 2012. "How Does Globalization Affect The Implicit Tax Rates On Labor Income, Capital Income, And Consumption In The European Union?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(4), pages 880-904, October.
    6. Paolo Liberati & Antonio Sciala, 2011. "How economic integration affects the vertical structure of the public sector," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 385-402, December.
    7. Bretschger, Lucas, 2010. "Taxes, mobile capital, and economic dynamics in a globalizing world," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 594-605, June.
    8. George E. Halkos & Michael L. Polemis, 2017. "Does Financial Development Affect Environmental Degradation? Evidence from the OECD Countries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1162-1180, December.
    9. Peter Schwarz, 2007. "Does capital mobility reduce the corporate-labor tax ratio?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 363-380, March.
    10. Asongu, Simplice A., 2017. "The effect of reducing information asymmetry on loan price and quantity in the African banking industry," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 185-197.
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Income Levels, Governance and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 71-103, February.
    12. Dunbar, Kwamie & Treku, Daniel N., 2025. "Do energy transition investment flows aid climate commitments?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    13. Özlem Onaran & Valerie Boesch, 2014. "The Effect of Globalization on the Distribution of Taxes and Social Expenditures in Europe: Do Welfare State Regimes Matter?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(2), pages 373-397, February.
    14. Ekrame Boubtane & Jean-Christophe Dumont & Christophe Rault, 2013. "Immigration and economic growth in the OECD countries 1986-2006," Post-Print halshs-00800617, HAL.
    15. Simplice Asongu & Rexon Nting, 2021. "The role of finance in inclusive human development in Africa revisited," Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(2), pages 345-370, February.
    16. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2023. "Foreign Direct Investment, Information Technology, And Total Factor Productivity Dynamics In Sub‐Saharan Africa," World Affairs, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 186(2), pages 469-506, June.
    17. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas Biekpe, 2017. "Government quality determinants of ICT adoption in sub-Saharan Africa," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 107-130, December.
    18. Ekrame Boubtane & Jean-Christophe Dumont & Christophe Rault, 2016. "Immigration and economic growth in the OECD countries 1986–2006," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 340-360.
    19. Asongu Simplice & Nwachukwu Jacinta, 2017. "Globalization and Inclusive Human Development in Africa," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, June.
    20. Wesley Burnett, J. & Madariaga, Jessica, 2017. "The convergence of U.S. state-level energy intensity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 357-370.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • F68 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:dlw:wpaper:14-16. 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: Saul Hoffman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deudeus.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.