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Estimating the Impacts of Payroll Taxes: Evidence from Canadian Employer-Employee Tax Data

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  • Deslauriers, Jonathan

    (HEC Montreal)

  • Dostie, Benoit

    (HEC Montreal)

  • Gagné, Robert

    (HEC Montreal)

  • Paré, Jonathan

    (HEC Montreal)

Abstract

In this paper, we use linked employer-employee administrative tax data from Canada to estimate the impact of payroll taxes on a variety of firms and workers outcomes. At the firm level, we use geographic and time variations in tax rates to identify the effect of payroll taxes on wage growth at the worker level. For one province, we exploit a clean overtime change in the payroll tax rate to estimate its impact on the firm's level of employment, average wage and productivity, with difference-in-differences models, taking into account firm-level unobserved heterogeneity. Additionally, taking advantage of the nature of linked data, we estimate wage equations with both fixed worker and firm fixed effects. We find no impact on employment, productivity and profits, but significant impacts on wages, implying that payroll taxes are passed almost entirely to workers in the form of lower wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Deslauriers, Jonathan & Dostie, Benoit & Gagné, Robert & Paré, Jonathan, 2018. "Estimating the Impacts of Payroll Taxes: Evidence from Canadian Employer-Employee Tax Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11598, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11598
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Julien Martin & Florian Mayneris, 2022. "Revue de littérature sur l’incidence fiscale des taxes sur les entreprises," CIRANO Project Reports 2022rp-06, CIRANO.
    3. CRISTEA Loredana Andreea & ZETI Catalin, 2019. "Study On The Incidence Of Social Security Contributions On Employment And Unemployment, In The European Context," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 71(2), pages 24-42, September.
    4. Gabriela Galassi, 2021. "Labor Demand Response to Labor Supply Incentives: Lessons from the German Mini-Job Reform," Staff Working Papers 21-15, Bank of Canada.
    5. Galassi, Gabriela, 2021. "Labor Demand Response to Labor Supply Incentives: Lessons from the German Mini-Job Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 14248, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Bastian, Jacob E. & Jones, Maggie R., 2021. "Do EITC expansions pay for themselves? Effects on tax revenue and government transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    7. Seerar Westerberg, Hans, 2021. "Are payroll tax cuts absorbed by insiders? Evidence from the Swedish retail industry," HFI Working Papers 20, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).

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    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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