Income Taxes, Compensating Differentials, and Occupational Choice: How Taxes Distort the Wage-Amenity Decision

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Year: 2012
Volume: 4
Issue: 1
Pages: 224-47

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

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

Abstract

The link between taxes and occupational choices is central for understanding the welfare impacts of income taxes. Just as taxes distort the labor-leisure decision, they may also distort the wage-amenity decision. Yet, there have been few studies on the full response along this margin. When tax rates increase, workers favor jobs with lower wages and more amenities. We introduce a two-step methodology which uses compensating differentials to characterize the tax elasticity of occupational choice. We estimate a significant compensated elasticity of 0.03, implying that a 10 percent increase in the net-oftax rate causes workers to change to a 0.3 percent higher wage job. (JEL H24, H31, J22, J24, J31)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejpol:v:4:y:2012:i:1:p:224-47
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29