Do lower taxes reduce the size of the firms? Evidence from micro-entrepreneurs in Brazil

C-Tier
Journal: Economics Letters
Year: 2023
Volume: 226
Issue: C

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper explores unique administrative data on the universe of firms under a simplified tax regime (SN) in a representative Brazilian state. We investigate micro-entrepreneurs revenue response to a reduced tax rate, up to 3.3 p.p. for smaller firms. Our preferred results show an excess mass of 735 (295%) firms bunching at the tax reduction eligibility threshold, resulting in an estimated elasticity of business income with respect to the net-of-taxes of 0.015. Firms whose revenues are close to the thresholds are associated with a larger probability to report positive revenue in the subsequent year (1.8%), however, most of these firms are no longer active.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:ecolet:v:226:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523000939
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-26