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Increasing Hours Worked: Moonlighting Responses to a Large Tax Reform

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  • Alisa Tazhitdinova

Abstract

Moonlighting is increasingly popular in OECD countries, with 5 to 10 percent of workers holding two or more jobs. However, little is known about the responsiveness of moonlighting to financial incentives due to the lack of identifying variation. This paper studies a unique reform in Germany that allowed workers to hold small secondary jobs tax-free, decreasing the marginal tax rate by between 19.5 to 66 pp. I show that the reform resulted in a dramatic increase in moonlighting that was not offset by reductions in primary earnings and that hours constraints are a key determinant of moonlighting.

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  • Alisa Tazhitdinova, 2022. "Increasing Hours Worked: Moonlighting Responses to a Large Tax Reform," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 473-500, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:473-500
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20190786
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    Cited by:

    1. Galassi, Gabriela, 2021. "Labor Demand Response to Labor Supply Incentives: Lessons from the German Mini-Job Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 14248, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Choe, Chung & Oaxaca, Ronald L. & Renna, Francesco, 2020. "Income Taxation and Dual Job Labour Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 13107, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Tazhitdinova, Alisa, 2020. "Do only tax incentives matter? Labor supply and demand responses to an unusually large and salient tax break," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Isabel Z. Martínez & Emmanuel Saez & Michael Siegenthaler, 2021. "Intertemporal Labor Supply Substitution? Evidence from the Swiss Income Tax Holidays," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(2), pages 506-546, February.
    5. Gabriela Galassi, 2021. "Labor Demand Response to Labor Supply Incentives: Lessons from the German Mini-Job Reform," Staff Working Papers 21-15, Bank of Canada.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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