Tax Cuts for Whom? Heterogeneous Effects of Income Tax Changes on Growth and Employment

S-Tier
Journal: Journal of Political Economy
Year: 2019
Volume: 127
Issue: 3
Pages: 1437 - 1472

Score contribution per author:

8.043 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

This paper investigates how tax changes for different income groups affect aggregate economic activity. I construct a measure of who received (or paid for) tax changes in the postwar period using tax return data from NBER’s TAXSIM. Variation in the income distribution across US states and federal tax changes generate variation in regional tax shocks that I exploit to test for heterogeneous effects. I find that the positive relationship between tax cuts and employment growth is largely driven by tax cuts for lower-income groups and that the effect of tax cuts for the top 10 percent on employment growth is small.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/701424
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29