scholarly journals Using Payroll Tax Variation to Unpack the Black Box of Firm-Level Production

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef Benzarti ◽  
Jarkko Harju
Keyword(s):  
Black Box ◽  
Total Output ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Payroll Tax ◽  
Payroll Taxes ◽  
Input Factor ◽  
Experimental Variation ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Level Production

Abstract This paper uses quasi-experimental variation in payroll tax rates in Finland to investigate how firms use their input factors. We find that higher payroll tax rates lead to large employment responses and have no effects on employee-level earnings. As payroll taxes increase, firms substitute away from low-skilled, routine and manual workers. Higher firm-level payroll tax rates also slightly decrease the total output of firms. Our results imply that firm-level production and input factor choices are clearly affected by payroll taxes.

When Does Money Stick in Education? Evidence from A Kinked Grant Rule

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-735
Author(s):  
Antti Saastamoinen ◽  
Mika Kortelainen
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
School Education ◽  
High School Education ◽  
Elderly Persons ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Intergovernmental Grants ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Lump Sum ◽  
Experimental Variation ◽  
Quasi Experimental

We study the effects of intergovernmental grants on school spending within the Finnish system of high school education funding. Using a kinked grant rule, the system allocates lump-sum intergovernmental grants to local high school education providers. Utilizing the quasi-experimental variation in grants given by the rule, we identify the effects of the grants on municipal high school education expenditures. Our results indicate that the grants stimulate spending, while local tax rates or revenues do not seem to be responsive to the grants, suggesting the presence of a typical flypaper effect. However, we also consider the possibility that the grant responses might be heterogeneous among municipalities. Based on our heterogeneity results, the grant response is positively associated with the share of the high school age population, and a higher share of elderly persons is related to a lower propensity to spend on education out of grant funding. This result is in line with the idea of intergenerational conflict in education spending preferences presented in education finance literature.

scholarly journals Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Labor Demand: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Administrative Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 266-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Firm Behavior ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Payroll Tax ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Regression Kink Design

To finance unemployment insurance, states raise payroll tax rates on employers who engage in layoffs. Tax rates are, therefore, highest for firms after downturns, potentially hampering labor-market recovery. Using full-population, administrative records from Florida, I estimate the effect of these tax increases on firm behavior leveraging a regression kink design in the tax schedule. Tax hikes reduce hiring and employment substantially, with no effect on layoffs or wages. The results imply unanticipated costs of the financing regime which reduce the optimal benefit by a quarter and account for 12 percent of the unemployment in the wake of the Great Recession. (JEL D22, E24, H25, H32, H71, J23, J65)

Implicit Taxes Amid Race to the Bottom in a Global Tax Game

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Igor Semenenko ◽  
Junwook Yoo ◽  
Parporn Akathaporn
Keyword(s):  
Capital Mobility ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Race To The Bottom ◽  
Tax Subsidy ◽  
Tax Subsidies ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Tax Returns ◽  
Tax Hypothesis

Growing tax competition among national governments in the presence of capital mobility distorts equilibrium in the international corporate tax market. This paper is related to the literature that examines impact of international tax policies on corporate accounting statements. Employing international firm-level data, this study revisits the race-to-the-bottom hypothesis and documents that tax exemptions lowering effective tax rates relative to statutory rates increase pre-tax returns. This finding directly contradicts the implicit tax hypothesis documented by Wilkie (1992), who provided empirical evidence on inverse relationship between pre-tax return and tax subsidy. We also find evidences that relative importance of permanent versus timing component depends on the geography and that decline in corporate tax rates reduces impact of tax subsidies on profitability. Our findings suggest that tax subsidies play a different role than in 1968-1985, which was examined by Wilkie (1992). These results are consistent with the race-to-the-bottom hypothesis and income shifting explanation

scholarly journals How Do Firms Respond to Reduced Labor Costs? Evidence from the 2007 Swedish Payroll Tax Reform

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven-Olov Daunfeldt ◽  
Anton Gidehag ◽  
Niklas Rudholm
Keyword(s):  
Tax Reform ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Labor Cost ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Extensive Margin ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Payroll Tax ◽  
Payroll Taxes ◽  
Wage Effect ◽  
Marginalized Groups

AbstractOne way for policymakers to reduce labor costs and stimulate the recruitment of marginalized groups of labor in a highly unionized economy is to lower payroll taxes. However, the efficiency of this policy instrument has been questioned, and previous evaluations have mostly found small employment effects for such reforms. We investigate the effects of a payroll tax cut in Sweden that decreased firms’ labor costs in relation to the number of young employees that they had employed when the reform was implemented in 2007. We find that most firms received small labor cost savings as a result of the reform, but those that received larger cost savings increased their number of employees significantly more than firms that received no, or minor, labor cost savings. Our findings also suggest that the payroll tax cut increased the total wages paid to incumbent workers, but the wage effect was too small to offset the positive extensive-margin employment effect of the reform. In total, we find that the Swedish payroll tax reform created 18,100 jobs over the period 2006–2008; most of these jobs were within the targeted group of young employees.

EXPRESS: Variety Effects in Advertising

2021 ◽  
pp. 002224372110560
Author(s):  
Omid Rafieian ◽  
Hema Yoganarasimhan
Keyword(s):  
Response Rate ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Experimental Variation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Unit Increase ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Click Through Rate ◽  
Empirical Framework

Users are often exposed to a sequence of short-lived marketing interventions (e.g., ads) within each usage session in mobile apps. This study examines how an increase in the variety of ads shown in a session affects a user's response to the next ad. The authors leverage the quasi-experimental variation in ad assignment in their data and propose an empirical framework that accounts for different types confounding to isolate the effects of a unit increase in variety. Across a series of models, the authors consistently show that an increase in ad variety in a session results in a higher response rate to the next ad: holding all else fixed, a unit increase in variety of the prior sequence of ads can increase the click-through rate on the next ad by approximately 13\%. The authors then explore the underlying mechanism and document empirical evidence for an attention-based account. The paper offers important managerial implications since it identifies a source of interdependence across ad exposures that is often ignored in the design of advertising auctions. Further, the attention-based mechanism suggests that platforms can incorporate real-time attention measures to help advertisers with targeting dynamics.

scholarly journals Corruption, Trade Costs, and Gains from Tariff Liberalization: Evidence from Southern Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (10) ◽  
pp. 3029-3063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Sequeira
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Firm Behavior ◽  
Trade Flow ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Trade Elasticities ◽  
Experimental Variation ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Tariff Liberalization ◽  
Import Behavior

This paper exploits quasi-experimental variation in tariffs in southern Africa to estimate trade elasticities. Traded quantities respond only weakly to a 30 percent reduction in the average nominal tariff rate. Trade flow data combined with primary data on firm behavior and bribe payments suggest that corruption is a potential explanation for the observed low elasticities. In contexts of pervasive corruption, even small bribes can significantly reduce tariffs, making tariff liberalization schemes less likely to affect the extensive and the intensive margins of firms' import behavior. The tariff liberalization scheme is, however, still associated with improved incentives to accurately report quantities of imported goods, and with a significant reduction in bribe transfers from importers to public officials. (JEL D22, D73, F13, H83, O17, O19, O24)

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