Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36388 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 10-035
Publisher: 
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim
Abstract: 
Changing the income tax progressivity in labour markets with collective wage bargaining generates a trade-off. On the one hand, higher progressivity distorts individual labour supply decisions at the hours-of-work margin, on the other hand, it reduces unemployment by exerting downward pressure on wages. This trade-off is quantitatively assessed using a numerical model for Germany. The model combines a microsimulation module, which captures the labour-supply decisions of approximately 4600 individual households, and a macro (computable general equilibrium) module, which features collective wage bargaining and involuntary unemployment. In the simulations carried out using this model, the optimal degree of tax progressivity turns out to be higher than the one in the actual German tax schedule. The optimum is located at marginal tax rates that are 6 percentage points higher than the actual rates (combined with a transfer that balances the public budget). The welfare gain from such a reform is modest, however. It amounts to no more than two euros per person per month.
Subjects: 
labour taxation
tax progressivity
optimal taxation
collective wage bargaining
unemployment
microsimulation
computable general equilibrium model
JEL: 
C63
C68
H21
J22
J51
J64
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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