The Swedish employer paid payroll tax was reduced substantially for young workers in 2007, causing firms' average social fees to depend on the age structure of their employees. Using pre-reform conditions to define treated and control firms, we show that the lower costs induced by the reduced...

We investigate bunching at personal tax thresholds over a 40-year period. At kinks, where the marginal tax rate rises, we find bunching among company owner-managers and the self-employed, but not those with only employment income. Notches, where the average rate rises, provide compelling...

This paper examines magnitudes and business cycle dynamics of social security contributions (SSC). In most OECD countries studied, we document a negative covariation of payroll tax burdens with GDP and GDP growth at business cycle and lower frequencies. We assess the overall magnitude of the...

Informal employment accounts for more than half of total employment in Latin America and the Caribbean, and an even higher percentage in Africa and South Asia. It is associated with lack of social insurance, low tax collection, and low productivity jobs. Lowering payroll taxes is a potential...

We show that an insight from taxation theory allows identification of both the supply and demand elasticities with only one instrument. Ramsey (1928) and subsequent models of taxation assume that a tax levied on the demand side only affects demand through the price after taxation....

Programs to reduce employers' social security contributions are being widely discussed in both the political arena and academic forums as tools for promoting economic growth and boosting employment. This paper employs a computable general equilibrium model to assess the economic impact on the...

Minijobber waren von der Einführung des allgemeinen gesetzlichen Mindestlohns aufgrund ihres vergleichsweise niedrigen Lohnniveaus besonders stark betroffen. . Als Reaktion auf den Mindestlohn könnten bei Minijobbern die Arbeitszeiten an-gepasst worden sein, insbesondere um...

In this short paper an attempt is undertaken to calculate the tax losses which result from shadow economy activities in a country. These calculations are done for the 28 EU countries, for 3 non-EU countries and for 2 other highly-developed OECD countries. The total tax losses over all 28...

Eine Flexibilisierung des Rentenübergangs kann unter Umständen zu einer höheren Beschäftigung und zu weiteren Vorteilen sowohl auf individueller als auch auf Firmenebene führen. Bei der Gestaltung eines graduellen Rentenübergangs für Personen unterhalb der Regelaltersgrenze ist vor allem...

I calculate unemployment multipliers of fiscal consolidation policies in a standard, closed-economy New Keynesian framework with search and matching frictions, and, as an innovation, in the presence of sectoral heterogeneity. Family and non-family firms behave differently in the labor market and...

This paper exploits discontinuities induced by earnings caps for social security contributions (SSC) in Germany to analyse the effect of SSC on gross labour earnings. Empirical evidence is based on two complementary approaches utilising two administrative data sets. First, employment responses...

Following the Great Recession, most states’ unemployment insurance (UI) trust funds became insolvent, requiring the states to borrow from the U.S. Treasury to finance benefit payments. This article describes the basics of UI financing and reviews the origins of the financial crisis facing the...

In response to high and enduring youth unemployment, large payroll tax cuts for young workers were implemented in two Swedish reforms in 2007 and 2009. This paper analyses the effects of the reforms on worker outcomes and firm performance in the retail industry, an important employer of young...

In 2007, the Swedish employer-paid payroll tax was cut on a large scale for young workers, substantially reducing labor costs for this group. Using Difference-in- Differences paired with exact matching, we estimate a small impact, both on employment and on wages, implying a labor demand...

Krankenkassen sollen in einer Solidarischen Wettbewerbsordnung als Unternehmen selektivvertragliche Bindungen zum Angebot von Optionstarifen nutzen. Dies sichert ihnen Steuerungsmöglichkeiten und eine echte Mittlerfunktion. Sie sind einer umfassenden Kartellaufsicht und entsprechender...

Über die Differenzierung von Sozialversicherungsbeiträgen in Arbeitgeber- und Arbeitnehmerbeiträge gibt es in Deutschland immer wieder Diskussionen, welche in den letzten Jahren sogar zu einer Aufweichung des Prinzips einer paritätischen Aufteilung geführt haben. Den meisten ökonomischen...

Axel Börsch-Supan, Tabea Bucher-Koenen und Johannes Rausch, MEA – Munich Center for the Economics of Aging am Max-Planck-Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik, München, zeigen, dass die Lage der GRV bis 2030, dem Zeithorizont des aktuellen Rentenversicherungsberichts, stabil im Sinne...

An unexpected surplus in the German statutory health insurance central fund has led to unwise discretionary decisions which should be avoided in the future. First, the setting of the contribution rate, which is currently politically determined, should be replaced by a rule-based procedure to...

In 2007, the Swedish employer-paid payroll tax was cut on a large scale for young workers, substantially reducing labor costs for this group. We estimate a small impact, both on employment and on wages, implying a labor demand elasticity for young workers at around -0.31. Since the tax reduction...

Unemployment insurance (UI) provides temporary income support to workers who have lost their jobs and are seeking reemployment. This paper reviews the origins of the federal-state UI system in the United States and outlines its principles and goals. It also describes the conditions for benefit...