IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v83y2024icp191-203.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do income tax incentives for job creation targeting young workers in SMEs stimulate employment? Evidence from South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Cho, Heepyung
  • Kang, Sung Hoon
  • Kwon, Sungjoon

Abstract

Faced with high unemployment and labor mismatches, many countries have mainly focused on stimulating labor demand through job creation policies. However, empirical evidence regarding their effectiveness is mixed, while the impact of labor supply-side policies remains underexplored. This study fills the gap by assessing the effectiveness of a labor supply-side policy—the Job Creation Income Tax Credit in Korea—which provides tax incentives for workers under 35 employed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using event-study and difference-in-differences models with national survey data from 2016 to 2019, we find insignificant effects on overall SME employment among individuals aged 32–34. While no significant effects are observed on regular workers, only low-educated male SME workers ineligible for the credit transition to eligible temporary SME jobs. These findings highlight that modest tax credits are ineffective in promoting employment for highly educated young individuals due to their high reservation wages and inelastic labor supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Cho, Heepyung & Kang, Sung Hoon & Kwon, Sungjoon, 2024. "Do income tax incentives for job creation targeting young workers in SMEs stimulate employment? Evidence from South Korea," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 191-203.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:83:y:2024:i:c:p:191-203
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.06.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624001565
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2024.06.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leigh, Andrew, 2018. "Do firms that pay less company tax create more jobs?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 25-28.
    2. Kenneth A. Couch & Douglas J. Besharov & David Neumark, 2013. "Spurring Job Creation in Response to Severe Recessions: Reconsidering Hiring Credits," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 142-171, January.
    3. Keane, Michael P., 2022. "Recent research on labor supply: Implications for tax and transfer policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Philip Oreopoulos & Till von Wachter & Andrew Heisz, 2012. "The Short- and Long-Term Career Effects of Graduating in a Recession," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 1-29, January.
    5. Faulk, Dagney, 2002. "Do State Economic Development Incentives Create Jobs? An Analysis of State Employment Tax Credits," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 55(N. 2), pages 263-280, June.
    6. Michael P. Keane & Nada Wasi, 2016. "Labour Supply: The Roles of Human Capital and The Extensive Margin," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(592), pages 578-617, May.
    7. John Bishop, 1981. "Employment in Construction and Distribution Industries:The Impact of the New Jobs Tax Credit," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Labor Markets, pages 209-246, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Stefan Bender & Till von Wachter, 2006. "In the Right Place at the Wrong Time: The Role of Firms and Luck in Young Workers' Careers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1679-1705, December.
    9. Faulk, Dagney, 2002. "Do State Economic Development Incentives Create Jobs? An Analysis of State Employment Tax Credits," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(2), pages 263-280, June.
    10. Gurmu, Shiferaw & Sjoquist, David L. & Wheeler, Laura, 2021. "The effectiveness of job creation tax credits," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    11. Iskhakov, Fedor & Keane, Michael, 2021. "Effects of taxes and safety net pensions on life-cycle labor supply, savings and human capital: The case of Australia," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 401-432.
    12. Timothy J. Bartik & George Erickcek, 2014. "Simulating the Effects of the Tax Credit Program of the Michigan Economic Growth Authority on Job Creation and Fiscal Benefits," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 28(4), pages 314-327, November.
    13. Riccardo Fiorito & Giulio Zanella, 2012. "The Anatomy of the Aggregate Labor Supply Elasticity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(2), pages 171-187, April.
    14. Andrés Erosa & Luisa Fuster & Gueorgui Kambourov, 2016. "Towards a Micro-Founded Theory of Aggregate Labour Supply," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(3), pages 1001-1039.
    15. Leigh, Andrew, 2018. "Reply: Do firms that pay less company tax create more jobs?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 113-115.
    16. 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).
    17. Perloff, Jeffrey M & Wachter, Michael L, 1979. "The New Jobs Tax Credit: An Evaluation of the 1977-78 Wage Subsidy Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 173-179, May.
    18. Viktor Steiner & Katharina Wrohlich, 2005. "Work Incentives and Labor Supply Effects of the ‘Mini-Jobs Reform’ in Germany," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 91-116, March.
    19. Orazio Attanasio & Peter Levell & Hamish Low & Virginia Sánchez‐Marcos, 2018. "Aggregating Elasticities: Intensive and Extensive Margins of Women's Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(6), pages 2049-2082, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keane, Michael P., 2022. "Recent research on labor supply: Implications for tax and transfer policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Roman Horvath & Ali Elminejad & Tomas Havranek, 2020. "Publication and Identification Biases in Measuring the Intertemporal Substitution of Labor Supply," Working Papers IES 2020/32, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Sep 2020.
    3. William Hoyt & Christopher Jepsen & Kenneth Troske, 2009. "Business Incentives and Employment: What Incentives Work and Where?," Working Papers 2009-02, University of Kentucky, Institute for Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations.
    4. Freedman, Matthew & Khanna, Shantanu & Neumark, David, 2023. "Combining rules and discretion in economic development policy: Evidence on the impacts of the California Competes Tax Credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    5. Choonsung Park, 2020. "Consumption, Reservation Wages, and Aggregate Labor Supply," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 54-80, July.
    6. Ali Elminejad & Tomas Havranek & Roman Horvath & Zuzana Irsova, 2023. "Intertemporal Substitution in Labor Supply: A Meta-Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 1095-1113, December.
    7. Robert S. Chirinko & Daniel J. Wilson, 2023. "Job Creation Tax Credits, Fiscal Foresight, and Job Growth: Evidence from US States," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(3), pages 481-523.
    8. Joel A. Elvery & C. Lockwood Reynolds & Shawn M. Rohlin, 2023. "Employer Wage Subsidy Caps and Part-Time Work," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(1), pages 189-209, January.
    9. Timothy J. Bartik, 2018. ""But For" Percentages for Economic Development Incentives: What percentage estimates are plausible based on the research literature?," Upjohn Working Papers 18-289, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    10. Robert S. Chirinko & Daniel J. Wilson, 2010. "Job creation tax credits and job growth: whether, when, and where?," Working Paper Series 2010-25, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    11. Hirte, Georg & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2018. "The impact of anti-congestion policies and the role of labor-supply margins," CEPIE Working Papers 04/18, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    12. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson & Jae Song, 2014. "Trade Adjustment: Worker-Level Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1799-1860.
    13. Emmanuel Saez & Benjamin Schoefer & David Seim, 2019. "Payroll Taxes, Firm Behavior, and Rent Sharing: Evidence from a Young Workers' Tax Cut in Sweden," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(5), pages 1717-1763, May.
    14. David Neumark & Diego Grijalva, 2017. "The Employment Effects of State Hiring Credits," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(5), pages 1111-1145, October.
    15. Adriana Kugler & Juan F. Jimeno & Virginia Hernanz, "undated". "Employment Consequences of Restrictive Permanent Contracts: Evidence from Spanish Labor Market Reforms," Working Papers 2003-14, FEDEA.
    16. Jacob Bundrick & Weici Yuan, 2019. "Do Targeted Business Subsidies Improve Income and Reduce Poverty? A Synthetic Control Approach," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(4), pages 351-375, November.
    17. Moretti, Enrico & Wilson, Daniel J., 2014. "State incentives for innovation, star scientists and jobs: Evidence from biotech," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 20-38.
    18. Wiljan van den Berge & Arne Brouwers, 2017. "A lost generation? The early career effects of graduating during a recession," CPB Discussion Paper 356, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    19. Moretti, Enrico, 2011. "Local Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 14, pages 1237-1313, Elsevier.
    20. Wiljan van den Berge & Arne Brouwers, 2017. "A lost generation? The early career effects of graduating during a recession," CPB Discussion Paper 356.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Job creation income tax credit; Employment effects; Labor supply tax incentive program;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:83:y:2024:i:c:p:191-203. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.