IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ioe/cuadec/v49y2012i1p99-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Payroll Taxes and the Labor Market: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Gustavo Hernández

Abstract

This study uses a computable general equilibrium model to analyze the effects of eliminating Colombia’s parafiscal taxes, which finance social programs. In the model, these are substituted by alternative financing sources: VAT, indirect taxes or taxes on capital. The results show that elimination of parafiscal taxes produces a one percentage point decrease in the unemployment rate, as long as these are not substituted by other taxes. However, when other taxes are substituted for parafiscal taxes, there may not be any effect on the unemployment rate. This implies that eliminating parafiscal taxes does not produce the effects expected by a partial equilibrium analysis, that is, a significant reduction in the unemployment rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Gustavo Hernández, 2012. "Payroll Taxes and the Labor Market: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 49(1), pages 99-123, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:ioe:cuadec:v:49:y:2012:i:1:p:99-123
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economia.uc.cl/docs/491hera.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mauricio Cardenas & Raquel Bernal, 2004. "Determinants of Labor Demand in Colombia. 1976-1996," NBER Chapters, in: Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 229-272, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Todaro, Michael P, 1969. "A Model for Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 138-148, March.
    3. Enrique López & Marla Ripoll N. & Freddy Cepeda, 1994. "Crónica de los Modelos de Equilibrio general en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 13(26), pages 7-68, December.
    4. Ramos, Raul & Duque, Juan C. & Surinach, Jordi, 2010. "Is the wage curve formal or informal? Evidence for Colombia," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 63-65, November.
    5. Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Obando, Nataly & Posada, Carlos Esteban, 2011. "Sensibilidad de los salarios al desempleo regional en Colombia: nuevas estimaciones de la curva de salarios," Chapters, in: López Enciso, Enrique & Ramírez Giraldo, María Teresa (ed.), Formación de precios y salarios en Colombia T.2, volume 2, chapter 23, pages 953-978, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    6. Adriana Kugler & Maurice Kugler, 2009. "Labor Market Effects of Payroll Taxes in Developing Countries: Evidence from Colombia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(2), pages 335-358, January.
    7. Rutherford, Thomas F, 1999. "Applied General Equilibrium Modeling with MPSGE as a GAMS Subsystem: An Overview of the Modeling Framework and Syntax," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 14(1-2), pages 1-46, October.
    8. Camilo Mondragón-Vélez & Ximena Peña & Daniel Wills, 2010. "Labor Market Rigidities and Informality in Colombia," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2010), pages 65-101, August.
    9. Böhringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas Fox & Wiegard, Wolfgang, 2003. "Computable general equilibrium analysis: Opening a black box," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-56, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Luis Eduardo Arango & Carlos Esteban Posada, 2006. "La Tasa de Desempleo de Largo Plazo en Colombia," Borradores de Economia 388, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. Bernal Raquel, 2009. "The Informal Labor Market in Colombia: identification and characterization," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, September.
    12. Ana María Iregui B. & ligia Alba Melo Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez Giraldo, 2013. "RDownward Wage Rigidities and Other Firms Responses to an Economic Slowdown: Evidence from a Survey of Colombian Firms," Investigación Conjunta-Joint Research, in: Laura Inés D'Amato & Enrique López Enciso & María Teresa Ramírez Giraldo (ed.), Inflationary Dynamics, Persistence, and Prices and Wages Formation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 403-449, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos, CEMLA.
    13. John Hutton & Anna Ruocco, 1999. "Tax Reform and Employment in Europe," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 263-287, August.
    14. Bohringer, Christoph & Boeters, Stefan & Feil, Michael, 2005. "Taxation and unemployment: an applied general equilibrium approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 81-108, January.
    15. Alejandro GAVIRIA URIBE & Jairo Augusto NUÑEZ MENDEZ, 2003. "Evaluating the impact of SENA on earnings and Employment," Archivos de Economía 2646, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    16. Diego Corredor & Oliver Enrique Pardo, 2008. "Matrices de Contabilidad Social 2003, 2004 y 2005," Archivos de Economía 4582, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    17. repec:bla:scandj:v:92:y:1990:i:2:p:215-35 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Lars Mathiesen, 1985. "Computational Experience in Solving Equilibrium Models by a Sequence of Linear Complementarity Problems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(6), pages 1225-1250, December.
    19. Thomas F. Rutherford & Miles K. LIGHT, 2002. "A General Equilibrium Model for Tax Policy Analysis in Colombia: The MEGATAX Model," Archivos de Economía 11291, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leonardo Fabio Morales & Carlos Medina, 2017. "Assessing the Effect of Payroll Taxes on Formal Employment: The Case of the 2012 Tax Reform in Colombia," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2017), pages 75-124, November.
    2. Hamid Hooshmandi & Majid Sameti & Rozita Moayedfar, 2015. "Modeling of Growth and Welfare Effects of Tax Reform in Iran: A Static Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 19(2), pages 211-237, Spring.
    3. Antón, Arturo & Boyd, Roy & Elizondo, Alejandra & Ibarrarán, María Eugenia, 2016. "Universal social insurance for Mexico: Modeling of a financing scheme," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 838-850.

    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. Gustavo Adolfo HERNANDEZ DIAZ, 2011. "Impuestos parafiscales y mercado laboral: Un análisis de Equilibrio General Computable," Archivos de Economía 8954, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    2. Juan Carlos Segura Ortiz, 2016. "Sobre el uso de curvas de salarios en modelos empíricos de equilibrio económico. Resena e introducción computacional," Revista Equidad y Desarrollo, Universidad de la Salle, issue 26, pages 172-189, July.
    3. Echavarría-Soto, Juan José & López, Enrique & Ocampo, Sergio & Rodríguez-Niño, Norberto, 2012. "Choques, instituciones laborales y desempleo en Colombia," Chapters, in: Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Hamann-Salcedo, Franz Alonso (ed.), El mercado de trabajo en Colombia : hechos, tendencias e instituciones, chapter 18, pages 753-794, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    4. Hernandez, Gustavo Adolfo & Light, Miles & Rutherford, Thomas, 2002. "A dynamic general equilibrium model for tax policy analysis in Colombia," MPRA Paper 28435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Thomas F. RUTHERFORD & Miles K. LIGHT & Gustavo Adolfo HERNANDEZ, 2002. "A dynamic general equilibrium model for tax policy analysis in Colombia," Archivos de Economía 1910, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    6. Catalina Granda & Franz Hamann, 2015. "Informality, Saving and Wealth Inequality," Borradores de Economia 873, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    7. Luz Adriana Florez, 2015. "The Search and Matching Equilibrium in an Economy with an Informal Sector: A Positive Analysis of Labour Market Policies," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, August.
    8. García-Suaza, A & Gómez, M & Jaramillo, F, 2021. "Fiscal policy and informality in Colombia," Documentos de trabajo - Alianza EFI 19416, Alianza EFI.
    9. Luis E. Arango & Luz A. Flórez, 2017. "Informalidad laboral y elementos para un salario mínimo diferencial por regiones en Colombia," Borradores de Economia 1023, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    10. Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Obando, Nataly & Posada, Carlos Esteban, 2012. "Los salarios reales a lo largo del ciclo económico en Colombia," Chapters, in: Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Hamann-Salcedo, Franz Alonso (ed.), El mercado de trabajo en Colombia : hechos, tendencias e instituciones, chapter 13, pages 545-585, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. repec:ilo:ilowps:482088 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Hermeling, Claudia & Klement, Jan Henrik & Koesler, Simon & Köhler, Jonathan & Klement, Dorothee, 2015. "Sailing into a dilemma," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 34-53.
    13. Xavier Jara & David Rodríguez, 2019. "Financial disincentives to formal work: Evidence from Ecuador and Colombia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-14, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Paula Herrera-Id�rraga & Enrique L�pez-Bazo & Elisabet Motell�n, 2015. "Double Penalty in Returns to Education: Informality and Educational Mismatch in the Colombian Labour Market," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(12), pages 1683-1701, December.
    15. Eduardo Lora & Johanna Fajardo-González, 2016. "Employment and taxes in Latin America: An empirical study of the effects of payroll, corporate income and value-added taxes on labor outcomes," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 35(Especial ), pages 75-117, January.
    16. Sue Wing, Ian & Eckaus, Richard S., 2007. "The implications of the historical decline in US energy intensity for long-run CO2 emission projections," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5267-5286, November.
    17. Luis Armando Galvis-Aponte & Gerson Javier Pérez-Valbuena, 2015. "Informalidad laboral y calidad del empleo en la Región Pacífica colombiana," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 14183, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    18. Koesler, Simon, 2014. "Specifying parameters in computable general equilibrium models using optimal fingerprint detection methods," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-092, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Oscar Bajo-Rubio & Antonio G. Gómez-Plana, 2015. "Alternative strategies to reduce public deficits: Taxes vs. spending," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 18, pages 45-70, May.
    20. Diego F. Angel‐Urdinola & Quentin Wodon, 2004. "The Impact on Inequality of Raising the Minimum Wage: Gap‐narrowing and Reranking Effects," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 18(2), pages 317-327, June.
    21. Diego F. ANGEL URDINOLA & Quentin WODON, 2003. "Relative labor supply and the gender wage Gap: Evidence for Colombia and the United States," Archivos de Economía 3452, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Payroll taxes; applied general equilibrium; tax replacement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:ioe:cuadec:v:49:y:2012:i:1:p:99-123. 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: Jaime Casassus (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iepuccl.html .

    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.