Tax-benefits reforms and the labor market: evidence from Belgium and other EU countries

During the last decade, several EU countries have tried to tackle unemployment and low activity rates through extensive tax cuts. In an effort to encourage the taking up of work – especially amongst the less productive workers – policymakers have shown increasing interest in targeted tax and social security contribution rebates as well as in benefits conditional on being in employment. This paper surveys recent tax-benefit reforms in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the UK, France and Belgium, focussing in particular on the reforms carried out in the latter. The potential labor supply effect of the Belgian reforms are assessed via a discrete hours labor supply model. The results are then compared to similar evaluations of reforms implemented in the aforementioned countries. Results suggest than: (i) generalized tax cut are not always effective in stimulating labor supply; (ii) in several central continental Europe, social security contributions play a major role in determining the incentives to take up work; (iii) joint assessment of income for both purposes of taxation and benefit eligibility has unambiguous negative effects on the labor supply of secondary earners (i.e. mostly women); (iv) targeted reductions in taxes and social security contributions, as well as benefits conditioned on employment are effective means to promote employment, but (v) efficient design of these policies is of greatest importance in order to counter potential negative incentive effects on the population already in employment.Tax-benefit Systems – Microsimulation – Household Labour Supply – Multinomial Logit.

A Bounded Index Test to make Robust Heterogeneous Welfare Comparisons

During last decade, improved macroeconomic and budgetary conditions have allowed for fiscal reforms in several EU countries. The main aim behind personal income tax reforms across Europe has been to reduce the tax burden on labour and to encourage work – especially for less productive workers. In this context, Anglo Saxon countries and more recently Continental European countries, including Belgium, have shown increasing interest in tax-benefit instruments awarding monetary transfers or tax reductions, conditional on employment. Using a discrete hours labour supply model, this paper assesses the impact of the 2001 Belgian Tax Reform on female labour supply. Results suggest that labour supply responses are moderate but significant by international standards. Yet, due to an uneven calibration of tax rebates and in-works benefits, the potential labour supply responses are rather dispersed over the whole range of the income distribution. Consequently, the gains from the reform do not appear to be evenly distributed across taxpayers.

Is Belgium 'making work pay'?

In the period 2001-2004 two major reforms followed in Belgium: a personal income tax reform (2001) and a reform of social security contributions for low skilled employees (2004). Using a discrete hours labor supply model, this paper assesses the impact of these reforms on aggregate labor supply of males and females in couples. Results suggest that the reforms had a positive (but moderate) effect on both participation and hours worked. Targeted reductions in social security contributions, however, proved to be more effective than the newly introduced tax credit on low earnings.Tax-benefit Systems – Microsimulation – Household Labour Supply – Multinomial Logit.

Strategic weight within couples: a microsimulation approach

Individual strategic weight plays an important role in the intra-household allocation of resources; however, empirical studies invariably find such weight difficult to define in a plausible and computable way, given the available data. This paper proposes a framework for the calculation of household members' strategic weight that can be easily computed using a microsimulation model. The index proposed for each member as the share of resources the household would lose should he or she abandon it. The causes of strategic weight differentials are analysed in four EU countries with significantly different employment structure and tax-benefit systems (Finland, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), using EUROMOD, an integrated EU-15 microsimulation model.individual strategic weight ; microsimulation ; tax-benefit systems

Sharing resources within the household: a multi-country microsimulation analysis of the determinants of intrahousehold "strategic weight" differentials and their distributional outcomes

Equal intra-household sharing is still assumed by the vaste majority of applied analyses in welfare economics. Few pieces of work have tried to depart from the equal sharing hypothesis, but their impact has been limited by lack of data or restricted application to special cases. This paper proposes a new framework to derive sharing rules based on individual bargaining power. The latter is defined for each household member as the share of resources gained by the household due to his/her presence. The causes of power differentials and their impact on income distribution are analysed in four EU countries presenting significantly different tax-benefit systems: Finland, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.intra-household sharing ; tax-benefit systems ; microsimulation

Labor Supply Elasticities in Europe and the US

Despite numerous studies on labor supply, the size of elasticities is rarely com- parable across countries. In this paper, we suggest the first large-scale international comparison of elasticities, while netting out possible differences due to methods, data selection and the period of investigation. We rely on comparable data for 17 Euro- pean countries and the US, a common empirical approach and a complete simulation of tax-benefit policies affecting household budgets. We find that wage-elasticities are small and vary less across countries than previously thought, e.g., between .2 and .6 for married women. Results are robust to several modeling assumptions. We show that differences in tax-benefit systems or demographic compositions explain little of the cross-country variation, leaving room for other interpretations, notably in terms of heterogeneous work preferences. We derive important implications for research on optimal taxation.household labor supply, elasticity, taxation, Europe, US

Subsidies on low skilled's social security contributions: the case of Belgium.

Belgium is characterised by a comparatively high tax wedge. Starting from the end of the 90’s there has been a growing concern over the effect of high labour costs on the employment of low skilled workers. One of the most innovative measures implemented by the federal government is the targeted reduction on social security contributions for low skilled workers: the Workbonus. The subsidy has increased steadily over the period 2000-2006. At the same time the eligibility to the benefit was considerably extended. The innovative feature of the tax credit is that - differently from other measure existing in OECD countries - eligibility is based on full-time equivalent earnings. The instrument therefore distinguishes between low skill and low effort and avoids the disincentive effect on labour supply at the intensive margin that is typically found in traditional measures means-tested on disposable income or earnings. This paper assesses the effects of the Workbonus on labour supply using different econometric frameworks. In particular, we compare estimates based on a traditional labour supply model, with results based on a modeling framework which accounts for heterogeneity in individuals’ job opportunities. Results show that accounting for demand side constraints leads to significantly lower estimates of labour supply effects. Nevertheless, the measure has a positive impact on labour supply and comparatively low cost per additional job created.Tax-benefit Systems; Microsimulation; Labour Supply; Structural Modeling;

Subsidies on low skilled's social security contributions: the case of Belgium

Belgium is characterised by a comparatively high tax wedge. Starting from the end of the 90’s there has been a growing concern over the effect of high labour costs on the employment of low skilled workers. One of the most innovative measures implemented by the federal government is the targeted reduction on social security contributions for low skilled workers: the Workbonus. The subsidy has increased steadily over the period 2000-2006. At the same time the eligibility to the benefit was considerably extended. The innovative feature of the tax credit is that - differently from other measure existing in OECD countries - eligibility is based on full-time equivalent earnings. The instrument therefore distinguishes between low skill and low effort and avoids the disincentive effect on labour supply at the intensive margin that is typically found in traditional measures means-tested on disposable income or earnings. This paper assesses the effects of the Workbonus on labour supply using different econometric frameworks. In particular, we compare estimates based on a traditional labour supply model, with results based on a modeling framework which accounts for heterogeneity in individuals’ job opportunities. Results show that accounting for demand side constraints leads to significantly lower estimates of labour supply effects. Nevertheless, the measure has a positive impact on labour supply and comparatively low cost per additional job created.Tax-benefit Systems – Microsimulation – Labour Supply – Structural Modeling.

Labor Supply Elasticities in Europe and the US

Despite numerous studies on labor supply, the size of elasticities is rarely comparable across countries. In this paper, we suggest the first large-scale international comparison of elasticities, while netting out possible differences due to methods, data selection and the period of investigation. We rely on comparable data for 17 European countries and the US, a common empirical approach and a complete simulation of tax-benefit policies affecting household budgets. We find that wage-elasticities are small and vary less across countries than previously thought, e.g., between .2 and .6 for married women. Results are robust to several modeling assumptions. We show that differences in tax-benefit systems or demographic compositions explain little of the cross-country variation, leaving room for other interpretations, notably in terms of heterogeneous work preferences. We derive important implications for research on optimal taxation.household labor supply, elasticity, taxation, Europe, US

A Belgian flat income tax: effects on labour supply and income distribution.

The adverse distributional effects of a flat tax are well known and have been documented by empirical research in several countries, including Belgium. Advocates of the flat tax argue, correctly, that these studies do not take into account agents’ behavioural reactions and possible feed back effects. One of the important effects in this context is the potential increase in labour supply and the resulting increase in the taxable base and decrease in unemployment allowances. In this study we calculate the cost recovery based on a micro-simulation model that includes a labour supply model. We find that there is indeed a clearly positive effect on labour supply and hence also on the tax base. By introducing a revenue-neutral flat tax, labour supply increases by approximately 47,000 full-time equivalents. However, the effect is limited because, compared to a static scenario the cost recovery only allows the revenue-neutral flat tax to decrease from 38.5% to 37%. Furthermore, there is little or no impact of these employment effects on the strongly regressive nature of a flat tax reform.