Sick of Taxes? Evidence on the Elasticity of Labor Supply When Workers are Free to Choose
Publikation: Working paper › Forskning
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Sick of Taxes? Evidence on the Elasticity of Labor Supply When Workers are Free to Choose. / Ljunge, Jan Martin.
Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, 2011.Publikation: Working paper › Forskning
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TY - UNPB
T1 - Sick of Taxes?
T2 - Evidence on the Elasticity of Labor Supply When Workers are Free to Choose
AU - Ljunge, Jan Martin
N1 - JEL classification: H31, I31, J22
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - I estimate a price elasticity of sickness absence. Sick leave is an intensive margin of labor supply where individuals are free to adjust. I exploit variation in tax rates over two decades, which provide thousands of differential incentives across time and space, to estimate the price responsiveness. High taxes provide an incentive to take more sick leave, as less after tax income is lost when taxes are high. The panel data, which is representative of the Swedish population, allow for extensive controls including unobserved individual characteristics. I find a substantial price elasticity of sick leave, -0.7, with respect to the net of tax rate. Though large relative to traditional labor supply elasticities, Swedes are half as price elastic as bike messengers, and just as elastic as stadium vendors on the margin which they can adjust freely.
AB - I estimate a price elasticity of sickness absence. Sick leave is an intensive margin of labor supply where individuals are free to adjust. I exploit variation in tax rates over two decades, which provide thousands of differential incentives across time and space, to estimate the price responsiveness. High taxes provide an incentive to take more sick leave, as less after tax income is lost when taxes are high. The panel data, which is representative of the Swedish population, allow for extensive controls including unobserved individual characteristics. I find a substantial price elasticity of sick leave, -0.7, with respect to the net of tax rate. Though large relative to traditional labor supply elasticities, Swedes are half as price elastic as bike messengers, and just as elastic as stadium vendors on the margin which they can adjust freely.
M3 - Working paper
BT - Sick of Taxes?
PB - Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen
ER -
ID: 35373153