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Drivers of participation elasticities across Europe: gender or earner role within the household?

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  • Bartels, Charlotte
  • Shupe, Cortnie

Abstract

We compute participation tax rates across the EU and find that work disincentives inherent in tax-benefit systems largely depend on household composition and the individual's earner role within the household. We then estimate participation elasticities using an IV Group estimator that enables us to investigate the responsiveness of individuals to work incentives. We contribute to the literature on heterogeneous elasticities by providing estimates for different socioeconomic groups by country, gender and earner role within the household. Our results show an average elasticity of 0.08 for men and of 0.14 for women as well as a high degree of heterogeneity across countries. The commonly cited difference in elasticities between men and women stems predominantly from the earner role of the individual within the household and nearly disappears once we control for this factor.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartels, Charlotte & Shupe, Cortnie, 2018. "Drivers of participation elasticities across Europe: gender or earner role within the household?," EUROMOD Working Papers EM7/18, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:emodwp:em7-18
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    Cited by:

    1. Cetin, Sefane & Jousten, Alain, 2022. "Retirement Decision of Belgian Couples and the Impact of the Social Security System," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2022024, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    2. Maximilian Joseph Blömer & Andreas Peichl, 2020. "Who Has an Incentive to Work? Participation Tax Rates of the German Tax-Transfer System," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 118.
    3. H. Xavier Jara & Katrin Gasior & Mattia Makovec, 2020. "Work Incentives at the Extensive and Intensive Margin in Europe: The Role of Taxes, Benefits and Population Characteristics," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 705-778, November.
    4. Lundberg, Jacob & Norell, John, 2018. "Taxes, benefits and labour force participation: A survey of the quasi-experimental literature," Ratio Working Papers 313, The Ratio Institute.
    5. Collado, Diego, 2020. "The anti-poverty marginal benefit of public funds," EUROMOD Working Papers EM2/20, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

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