Labor Taxation: Insights From The World Economic Forum Survey

Moutsopoulos, Michael and Pelagidis, Theodore (2021): Labor Taxation: Insights From The World Economic Forum Survey. Published in: CATO JOURNAL , Vol. 41, No. 3 (2021)

Abstract

One of the main topics highlighted in the field of economic policy applications is the impact of taxation on labor. In an era in which macroeconomic stability, technological change, and globalization pressure the job market, there exists no strong consensus in the literature on how exactly taxation influences growth, choice between work and leisure, share of income attributed to labor, or participation in different job market segments. This article focuses on employment levels and uses the results of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) between 2013 and 2017 to bypass several challenges often faced in the literature. By doing so, we complement the insights of the existing literature by establishing that, in institutionally mature countries, taxation that is deemed by a survey of business executives to pose a disincentive to work reduces employment.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Labor, Taxation
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy; F - International Economics > F6 - Economic Impacts of Globalization > F66 - Labor; H - Public Economics > H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue > H21 - Efficiency ; Optimal Taxation; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J0 - General > J01 - Labor Economics: General

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