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The Impact of Short- and Long-Term Participation Tax Rates on Labor Supply

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  • Bartels, Charlotte

    (DIW Berlin)

  • Pestel, Nico

    (Maastricht University)

Abstract

Generous income support programs as provided by European welfare states have often been blamed to hamper employment. This paper investigates the importance of incentives inherent in the tax-benefit system for the individual decision to take up work. Using German microdata over the period 1993-2010 we find that recent reforms in Germany increased work incentives at the extensive margin measured by the Participation Tax Rate (PTR), particularly for low-income individuals. Work incentives are even higher if the time horizon is extended to more than one year, pointing at an overestimation of the disincentives by standard measures. Regression analysis reveals that a decrease in the PTR increases the likelihood of taking up work significantly.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartels, Charlotte & Pestel, Nico, 2015. "The Impact of Short- and Long-Term Participation Tax Rates on Labor Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 9151, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9151
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    Cited by:

    1. Diego Collado & Bea Cantillon & Karel Van den Bosch & Tim Goedemé & Dieter Vandelannoote, 2016. "The end of cheap talk about poverty reduction: the cost of closing the poverty gap while maintaining work incentives," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/08, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    2. Robin Jessen & Davud Rostam-Afschar & Viktor Steiner, 2017. "Getting the Poor to Work: Three Welfare-Increasing Reforms for a Busy Germany," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 73(1), pages 1-41, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    welfare; work incentives; labor force participation; unemployment insurance; income taxation;
    All these keywords.

    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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