Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/84977 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge No. 153-12
Publisher: 
Universität Siegen, Fakultät III, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht, Siegen
Abstract: 
Empirical evidence on the degree of business-tax shifting to employees via the wage level is highly controversial and rare. It remains open to which extent the tax burden is shifted, whether there are differences for tax increases and decreases, or whether there exists some treatment heterogeneity, that drive the respective results. Using a large administrative panel data set, we exploit the regional variation of the German business income taxation to adress these issues. Our results suggest an elasticity of wages with respect to business taxes that ranges between -0.28 to -0.46, once we control for invariant unobserved regional and individual characteristics. Workers with low bargaining power, e.g., low-skilled, are affected most from business tax shifting, indicating that business-tax incidence involves distributional effects. Finally, we find evidence for an asymmetric tax incidence.
Subjects: 
tax incidence
profit taxation
wages
asymmetric effects
JEL: 
H22
H25
J31
J38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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