Award-Winning Research on Taxation
Paper Session
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)
- Chair: Matthew Weinzierl, Harvard Business School
Musgrave Prize Award Winner
Abstract
The winner will present a paperNTA Dissertation Prize Winner
Abstract
We explore whether the way in which tax credits are disbursed affects employers' behavior, wages, and employment. We exploit a change in the payment system in Argentina that was gradually rolled out between 2003 and 2010. Under the old system, employers were in charge of delivering family allowances to their employees together with the monthly salary, and the transfer was deducted from employer social security contributions. For transparency purposes, the government eliminated the intermediary role of firms and started to deposit the transfer directly into workers' bank accounts. Using employer-employee administrative data and an event-study approach, we show that the way tax credits are disbursed matters for the final economic incidence. Our evidence suggests that employers shift part of the incidence of the transfer by paying lower wages. We document larger wage effects in small and less unionized firms and we do not find evidence of pay equity concerns (e.g., effect mostly driven by new hires rather than incumbent workers). Our findings are therefore in line with the hypothesis that transfers are not all captured dollar for dollar by workers. These results raise questions about the use of employers as intermediaries to disburse the transfer; where less salient schemes may lead to rent capture by employers.NTA Dissertation Prize Runners-Up
Abstract
Taxes on land and property are efficient in theory but uniquely unpopular in practice, and have been curtailed in 46 states. Unlike other taxes, property taxes may create financial distress when rising home values raise property tax bills but not incomes. I find that even modest tax hikes create distress: a $50 monthly tax hike increases mortgage delinquency by 9% and reduces auto consumption by $15. Homeowners report being able but unwilling to draw on housing wealth, and cite debt aversion as a key factor. Distortionary income-based relief reduces property tax animus, which is concentrated in counties that do not limit how much rising home values can raise property taxes. These findings suggest that financial distress makes efficient property taxation politically infeasible.NTA Dissertation Prize Runners-Up
Abstract
TBDJEL Classifications
- H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
- H3 - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents