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What is Labor Supply and Do Taxes Affect It?

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  • Harvey S. Rosen

Abstract

The issue of tax-induced changes in labor supply behavior has been receiving increasing attention. Economic theory alone can say little about the impact of income taxation on labor supply because of the well- known conflict between income and substitution effects. Therefore, an enormous amount of effort has been devoted to empirical investigation of this problem, with a focus on the impact of taxes on hours of work and labor force participation rates. In Section I of this paper, I briefly discuss this literature and its major conclusions. It has been long understood, however, that the concept "labor supply" is more general than "hours of work." If one individual is healthier, better educated, and more highly motivated than another, then presumably a given number of hours of work will lead to a greater effective labor supply for the former than for the latter. Thus, studies of the effect of taxes on other dimensions of labor supply are needed in order to assess the full impact of taxes on work incentives. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss some of this research (Section II) and to explore its policy implications (Section III).

Suggested Citation

  • Harvey S. Rosen, 1979. "What is Labor Supply and Do Taxes Affect It?," NBER Working Papers 0411, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0411
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Willis, Robert J & Rosen, Sherwin, 1979. "Education and Self-Selection," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 7-36, October.
    2. Roger H. Gordon & Alan S. Blinder, 1980. "Market Wages, Reservation Wages, and Retirement Decisions," NBER Chapters, in: Econometric Studies in Public Finance, pages 277-308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Stafford, Frank & Duncan, Greg J., 1979. "The Use of Time and Technology by Households in the United States," Working Paper Series 21, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Burtless, Gary & Hausman, Jerry A, 1978. "The Effect of Taxation on Labor Supply: Evaluating the Gary Negative Income Tax Experiments," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(6), pages 1103-1130, December.
    5. Gronau, Reuben, 1977. "Leisure, Home Production, and Work-The Theory of the Allocation of Time Revisited," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1099-1123, December.
    6. repec:pri:indrel:dsp015m60qr90f is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Eaton, Jonathan & Rosen, Harvey S, 1980. "Taxation, Human Capital, and Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 705-715, September.
    8. Rosen, Harvey S, 1976. "Taxes in a Labor Supply Model with Joint Wage-Hours Determination," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(3), pages 485-507, May.
    9. Michael J. Boskin, 1975. "Notes on the Tax Treatment of Human Capital," NBER Working Papers 0116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. R. E. Hall, 1970. "Wages, Income and Hours of Work in the U. S. Labor Force," Working papers 62, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    11. J. E. Stiglitz, 1969. "The Effects of Income, Wealth, and Capital Gains Taxation on Risk-Taking," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 83(2), pages 263-283.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gamal Atallah, 1998. "Les impôts sur le revenu et l’offre de travail des femmes mariées : une revue de la littérature," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 74(1), pages 95-128.
    2. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Cap and trade policies in the presence of monopoly and distortionary taxation," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 327-347, November.
    3. Daniel R. Feenberg & Harvey S. Rosen, 1983. "Alternative Tax Treatments of the Family: Simulation Methodology and Results," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral Simulation Methods in Tax Policy Analysis, pages 7-46, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Michael Mitsopoulos, 2017. "Overtaxation of Private Sector Salaried Employment as a Key Impediment to the Recovery of Greece," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Dimitrios D. Thomakos & Konstantinos I. Nikolopoulos (ed.), Taxation in Crisis, chapter 12, pages 289-336, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Moutsopoulos, Michael & Pelagidis, Theodore, 2021. "Labor Taxation: Insights From The World Economic Forum Survey," MPRA Paper 110823, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Michael MITSOPOULOS & Theodore PELAGIDIS, 2021. "Labor Taxation And Investment In Developed Countries. The Impact On Employment," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 13-31, June.
    7. Christopher C. Findlay & Robert L. Jones, 1982. "The Marginal Cost of Australian Income Taxation," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 58(3), pages 253-262, September.
    8. Don Fullerton & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2002. "Environmental Controls, Scarcity Rents, and Pre-existing Distortions," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 26, pages 504-522, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Bovenberg, A. Lans & van Ewijk, Casper, 1997. "Progressive taxes, equity, and human capital accumulation in an endogenous growth model with overlapping generations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 153-179, May.
    10. Charles E. McLure, Jr., 1980. "Taxes, Saving, and Welfare: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 0504, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 2000. "Alcohol," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 30, pages 1629-1673, Elsevier.
    12. Eva Jacob & Kevin Wirtz, 2025. "Sixty years of Basic Income research," Working Papers of BETA 2025-47, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    13. Frank Stafford, 1985. "Income-Maintenance Policy and Work Effort: Learning from Experiments and Labor-Market Studies," NBER Chapters, in: Social Experimentation, pages 95-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 1999. "Alcohol," Working Papers 156, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.

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