Does a shift in the tax burden create employment?

C-Tier
Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 1999
Volume: 31
Issue: 10
Pages: 1195-1205

Authors (3)

Joan Muysken (Maastricht University) Tom Van Veen (not in RePEc) Erik De Regt (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.335 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

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

Abstract

According to Dalton's Law it does not matter which side of the market is taxed. This holds for a model of the labour market as well. Nevertheless, it is often maintained that shifting the wedge from employers to employees has favourable effects on employment. That is, a shift from employers' to employees' taxes decreases wages and hence unemployment. This apparent paradox is discussed by analysing the impact of taxes in a wage bargaining model - it is shown that Dalton's Law does not necessarily hold in those models. The findings are illustrated by empirical results concerning tax shifting by employers and employees for the Netherlands. It is found that no employers' taxes are shifted backwards, whereas about 44% of employees' taxes are shifted forwards. These values imply a positive effect on employment of a reduction of the wedge in favour of employers.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:taf:applec:v:31:y:1999:i:10:p:1195-1205
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-26