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Recent Marginal Labor Income Tax Rate Changes by Skill and Marital Status

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  • Casey B. Mulligan

Abstract

This paper calculates monthly time series for the overall safety net's statutory marginal labor income tax rate as a function of skill and marital status. Marginal tax rates increased significantly for all groups between 2007 and 2009, and dramatically so for unmarried household heads. The relationship between incentive changes and skill varies by marital status. Unemployment insurance and related expansions contribute to the patterns by skill while food stamp expansions contribute to the patterns by marital status. Remarkably, group changes in hours worked per capita line up with the statutory measures of incentive changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Casey B. Mulligan, 2012. "Recent Marginal Labor Income Tax Rate Changes by Skill and Marital Status," NBER Working Papers 18426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18426
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Casey B. Mulligan, 2012. "The ARRA: Some Unpleasant Welfare Arithmetic," NBER Working Papers 18591, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Casey Mulligan, 2015. "Fiscal policies and the prices of labor: a comparison of the U.K. and U.S," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Mike Brewer & Jonathan Shaw, 2018. "How Taxes and Welfare Benefits Affect Work Incentives," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 5-38, March.
    4. Gallen, Trevor S., 2018. "Is the labor wedge due to rigid wages? Evidence from the self-employed," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 184-198.
    5. Mike Brewer & Monica Costa Dias & Jonathan Shaw, 2018. "The return to work and how it is taxed: a dynamic perspective," IFS Working Papers W18/27, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Ritter, Joseph A., 2018. "Incentive effects of SNAP work requirements," Staff Papers 281156, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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