Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2018
Volume: 108
Issue: 2
Pages: 393-418

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

This paper estimates the incidence of corporate taxes on wages using a 20-year panel of German municipalities exploiting 6,800 tax changes for identification. Using event study designs and difference-in-differences models, we find that workers bear about one-half of the total tax burden. Administrative linked employer-employee data allow us to estimate heterogeneous firm and worker effects. Our findings highlight the importance of labor market institutions and profit-shifting opportunities for the incidence of corporate taxes on wages. Moreover, we show that low-skilled, young, and female employees bear a larger share of the tax burden. This has important distributive implications.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:108:y:2018:i:2:p:393-418
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25