IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp55.html

Value-added Tax versus Social Security Contributions

Author

Listed:
  • Goerke, Laszlo

    (IAAEU, University of Trier)

Abstract

In order to alleviate unemployment it is often recommended to reduce social security contributions (SSC) and to compensate for the ensuing loss in revenues by a rise in the value-added tax (VAT). Assuming unemployment to be caused by efficiency wages, it is shown that a balanced-budget shift from a payroll tax to a VAT will increase employment if the rise in the VAT does not alter consumer prices. If the effects of a shift from SSC to the VAT on the worker’s effort are neutralised, for example, by imposing a constant wedge, the employment impact will depend on the nature of the unemployment compensation system.

Suggested Citation

  • Goerke, Laszlo, 1999. "Value-added Tax versus Social Security Contributions," IZA Discussion Papers 55, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp55
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp55.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pisauro, Giuseppe, 1991. "The effect of taxes on labour in efficiency wage models," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 329-345, December.
    2. repec:bla:scotjp:v:44:y:1997:i:3:p:269-79 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Devine, Theresa J. & Kiefer, Nicolas M., 1991. "Empirical Labor Economics: The Search Approach," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195059366.
    4. Lin, Chung-Cheng & Lai, Ching-Chong, 1997. "The Solow Condition in an Efficiency Wage Model with Overtime Work," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(69), pages 342-350, December.
    5. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173.
    6. James Pemberton, 1992. "Taxation and Wage Bargaining," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 68(4), pages 318-327, December.
    7. Goerke, Laszlo, 1997. "Taxes in an efficiency wage economy," Discussion Papers, Series II 335, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    8. Hian Hoon, 1996. "Payroll taxes and VAT in a labor-turnover model of the ‘natural rate’," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 369-383, July.
    9. Pissarides, Christopher A., 1998. "The impact of employment tax cuts on unemployment and wages; The role of unemployment benefits and tax structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 155-183, January.
    10. Gylfi Zoega, 1997. "Public Consumption and Unemployment," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 44(3), pages 269-279, August.
    11. repec:bla:ausecp:v:38:y:1999:i:2:p:131-42 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. repec:bla:ecorec:v:68:y:1992:i:203:p:318-27 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    14. Solow, Robert M., 1979. "Another possible source of wage stickiness," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 79-82.
    15. Michael Hoel, 1990. "Efficiency wages and income taxes," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 89-99, February.
    16. Erkki Koskela & Ronnie Schöb, 2002. "Alleviating Unemployment: The Case for Green Tax Reforms," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 20, pages 355-378, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    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. Pia Weiss, 2001. "How to Finance Unemployment Benefits in an Economy with Search Generated Equilibrium Unemployment," Public Economics 0103001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Laszlo Goerke, 2000. "The Wedge," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 68(5), pages 608-623, September.

    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. Goerke, Laszlo, 2000. "On the structure of unemployment benefits in shirking models," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 283-295, May.
    2. Laszlo Goerke, 2006. "Earnings‐related Severance Pay," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 20(4), pages 651-672, December.
    3. Goerke, Laszlo, 1997. "Taxes in an efficiency wage economy," Discussion Papers, Series II 335, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    4. Goerke, Laszlo, 1998. "Bismarck versus Beveridge: Flat- and earnings-related unemployment insurance in an efficiency wage framework," Discussion Papers, Series I 291, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    5. Laszlo Goerke, 2000. "The Wedge," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 68(5), pages 608-623, September.
    6. Bohringer, Christoph & Boeters, Stefan & Feil, Michael, 2005. "Taxation and unemployment: an applied general equilibrium approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 81-108, January.
    7. Altenburg, Lutz & Straub, Martin, 2001. "Taxes on labour and unemployment in a shirking model with union bargaining," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 721-744, December.
    8. Goerke, Laszlo & Madsen, Jakob B., 2003. "Earnings-related unemployment benefits and unemployment," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 41-62, March.
    9. Bovenberg, A.L., 2003. "Tax Policy and Labor Market Performance," Discussion Paper 2003-90, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    10. Goerke, Laszlo & Madsen, Jakob B., 2003. "Earnings-Related Unemployment Benefits in a Unionised Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 701, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Bo Sandemann Rasmussen, "undated". "Efficiency Wages and the Long-Run Incidence of Progressive Taxation," Economics Working Papers 2001-5, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    12. Pekka Sinko, 2007. "Labour taxation, job creation and job destruction—Focusing on the role of wage setting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(5), pages 583-604, October.
    13. Ariane Breitfelder & Udo Broll & Kit Pong Wong, 2008. "Wages, Employment and Futures Markets," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 118-123, Autumn.
    14. Koskela, Erkki & Schöb, Ronnie, 2007. "How Tax Progression Affects Effort and Employment," IZA Discussion Papers 2861, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Peter Birch Sørensen, "undated". "Labour Tax Reform, The Good Jobs and the Bad Jobs," EPRU Working Paper Series 99-01, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    16. Kevin Lang, 2020. "Effort and wages: Evidence from the payroll tax," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 108-139, February.
    17. de Pinto Marco & Goerke Laszlo, 2019. "Efficiency Wages in Cournot-Oligopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 1-13, October.
    18. Holmlund Bertil, 2002. "Labor Taxation in Search Equilibrium with Home Production," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 3(4), pages 415-430, December.
    19. Sami Bibi, 2003. "On The Impact of Labor Tax Reforms on Unemployment in Tunisia," Working Papers 0330, Economic Research Forum, revised 10 Sep 2003.
    20. João Ricardo Faria, 2004. "The Effects Of Taxes On Labour In A Dynamic Efficiency Wage Model," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 286-297, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

    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:iza:izadps:dp55. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.