IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tam/wpaper/1819.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evaluation of the Finnish Income Disregard Reform

Author

Listed:
  • Palviainen Heikki

    (Faculty of Management, University of Tampere)

Abstract

In 2002, the Finnish government introduced an earnings disregard reform aimed at improving the incentives of low-income individuals who receive last-resort social assistance. The aim of the reform was to decrease unemployment by providing social assistance clients better incentives to receive at least temporary or part-time work. This paper evaluates the employment effects of the reform using a quasi-experimental design. After a behavioral adjustment period, there are positive results for females, single-person households and individuals with earnings. No effects on the extensive margin imply that a behavioural response requires some attachment to the labour market. No transition from social assistance to longer-term employment is observed.

Suggested Citation

  • Palviainen Heikki, 2018. "Evaluation of the Finnish Income Disregard Reform," Working Papers 1819, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tam:wpaper:1819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-0697-7
    File Function: First version, 2018
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Austin Nichols & Jesse Rothstein, 2015. "The Earned Income Tax Credit," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 1, pages 137-218, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Nichols, Austin & Rothstein, Jesse, 2015. "The Earned Income Tax Credit," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt6w2736gk, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    3. Michalopoulos, Charles & Robins, Philip K. & Card, David, 2005. "When financial work incentives pay for themselves: evidence from a randomized social experiment for welfare recipients," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 5-29, January.
    4. Olivier Bargain & Herwig Immervoll & Heikki Viitamäki, 2012. "No claim, no pain. Measuring the non-take-up of social assistance using register data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 375-395, September.
    5. Edmark, Karin & Liang, Che-Yuan & Mörk, Eva & Selin, Håkan, 2012. "Evaluation of the Swedish earned income tax credit," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2012:3, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    6. Nada Eissa & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 1996. "Labor Supply Response to the Earned Income Tax Credit," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 605-637.
    7. Lemieux, Thomas & Milligan, Kevin, 2008. "Incentive effects of social assistance: A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 807-828, February.
    8. Marike Knoef & Jan C. van Ours, 2016. "How to stimulate single mothers on welfare to find a job: evidence from a policy experiment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1025-1061, October.
    9. Immervoll, Herwig & Pearson, Mark, 2009. "A Good Time for Making Work Pay? Taking Stock of In-Work Benefits and Related Measures across the OECD," IZA Policy Papers 3, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Marco Francesconi & Wilbert van der Klaauw, 2007. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of "In-Work" Benefit Reform for British Lone Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(1).
    11. Bastani, Spencer & Moberg, Ylva & Selin, Håkan, 2016. "Estimating participation responses using transfer program reform," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2016:4, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    12. Nichols, Austin & Rothstein, Jesse, 2015. "The Earned Income Tax Credit," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt6w2736gk, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    13. Jordan D. Matsudaira & Rebecca M. Blank, 2014. "The Impact of Earnings Disregards on the Behavior of Low‐Income Families," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 7-35, January.
    14. Austin Nichols & Jesse Rothstein, 2015. "The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)," NBER Working Papers 21211, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Eissa, Nada & Hoynes, Hilary Williamson, 2004. "Taxes and the labor market participation of married couples: the earned income tax credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1931-1958, August.
    16. V. Joseph Hotz & John Karl Scholz, 2006. "Examining the Effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on the Labor Market Participation of Families on Welfare," NBER Working Papers 11968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Palviainen Heikki, 2021. "Incentivizing last-resort social assistance clients: Evidence from a Finnish policy experiment," Working Papers 2132, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
    2. Heikki Palviainen, 2023. "Incentivizing last-resort social assistance clients: Evidence from a Finnish policy experiment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Luis Ayala & Milagros Paniagua, 2019. "The impact of tax benefits on female labor supply and income distribution in Spain," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 1025-1048, September.
    4. Kleven, Henrik, 2024. "The EITC and the extensive margin: A reappraisal," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    5. Dahl, Gordon & Loken, Katrine V., 2024. "Families, public policies, and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    6. Florian Buhlmann & Benjamin Elsner & Andreas Peichl, 2018. "Tax refunds and income manipulation: evidence from the EITC," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(6), pages 1490-1518, December.
    7. Felix J. Bierbrauer & Pierre C. Boyer & Emanuel Hansen, 2023. "Pareto‐Improving Tax Reforms and the Earned Income Tax Credit," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(3), pages 1077-1103, May.
    8. Lauren E. Jones & Guangyi Wang & Tansel Yilmazer, 2022. "The long‐term effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on women's physical and mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1067-1102, June.
    9. Elira Kuka & Na'ama Shenhav, 2024. "Long-Run Effects of Incentivizing Work after Childbirth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(6), pages 1692-1722, June.
    10. Gangopadhyaya, Anuj & Blavin, Fredric & Gates, Jason & Braga, Breno, 2019. "Credit Where It's Due: Investigating Pathways from EITC Expansion to Maternal Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 12233, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Aida Farmand & Owen Davis, 2021. "Who Does the Earned Income Tax Credit Benefit? A Monopsony View," SCEPA working paper series. 2021-02, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    12. Laun, Lisa, 2019. "In-work benefits across Europe," Working Paper Series 2019:16, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    13. Nicholas-James Clavet & Luca Tiberti & Marko Vladisavljevic & Jelena Zarkovic Rakic & Aleksandra Anic & Gorana Krstic & Sasa Randelovic, 2017. "Reduction of child poverty in Serbia: Improved cash-transfers or higher work incentives for parents?," Working Papers PMMA 2017-04, PEP-PMMA.
    14. Etienne Lehmann & Claudio Lucifora & Simone Moriconi & Bruno Van der Linden, 2016. "Beyond the labour income tax wedge: the unemployment-reducing effect of tax progressivity," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(3), pages 454-489, June.
    15. Harry J. Holzer, 2023. "Should the earned income tax credit rise for childless adults?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1842-1842, September.
    16. Katharine G. Abraham & Melissa S. Kearney, 2020. "Explaining the Decline in the US Employment-to-Population Ratio: A Review of the Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(3), pages 585-643, September.
    17. Amanda Y. Agan & Michael D. Makowsky, 2023. "The Minimum Wage, EITC, and Criminal Recidivism," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(5), pages 1712-1751.
    18. Maria Rosaria Marino & Marzia Romanelli & Martino Tasso, 2016. "Women at work: the impact of welfare and fiscal policies in a dynamic labor supply model," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1084, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    19. Julien Albertini & Arthur Poirier & Anthony Terriau, 2020. "The impact of EITC on education, labor market trajectories, and inequalities," Working Papers 2036, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    20. Gordon Dahl & Katrine Loken, 2024. "Families, Public Policies, and the Labor Market," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2423, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:tam:wpaper:1819. 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: Sami Remes (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/khutafi.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.