Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/115008 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
NRN Working Paper, NRN: The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State No. 0804
Publisher: 
Johannes Kepler University Linz, NRN - The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Linz
Abstract: 
In 1996 Austria introduced a tax for the layoff of older workers, which was tightened in 2000. The regulation requires employers to pay a tax of up to 170 percent of the gross monthly income when they give notice to employees aged 50 or more. We use data from Austrian social security records to investigate if such layoff taxes lead to less firing of older workers. We compare a control group of workers aged nearly 50 with the treatment group above 50. We apply a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the difference in the displacement probability of all prime aged workers. Results show substantial reductions in layoff behavior for workers aged 50 and above after the tightening of the tax.
Subjects: 
Layoff tax
labor demand
employment
elderly workers
JEL: 
J14
J45
J63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
392.8 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.