Tax-induced mobility: Evidence from a foreigners' tax scheme in Switzerland

Abstract

We study location choice and residential mobility responses to local income taxes exploiting a special tax regime which applies to foreign employees residing in Switzerland. The institutional setting used generates a deterministic duration threshold at 5 years of stay in the country, at which the local tax rates an individual faces simultaneously change in all municipalities. We exploit this exogenous variation by applying a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to merged survey and administrative individual-level data. A dynamic location choice model allows us to derive testable hypotheses of individuals' location choices and mobility decisions. Our estimated treatment effects provide causal evidence for tax-induced residential choices and tax induced intra-national mobility.