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Taxes and labor supply: Portugal, Europe, and the United States

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  • André Silva

Abstract

I relate hours worked with taxes on consumption and labor for Portugal, France, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. From 1986 to 2001, hours per worker in Portugal decreased from 35.1 to 32.6. With the parameters for Portugal, the model predicts hours worked in 2001 with an error of only 12 minutes from the actual hours. Across countries, most predictions differ from the data by one hour or less. The model is not sensible to special assumptions on the parameters. I calculate the long run effects of taxes on consumption, hours, capital and welfare for Portugal. I extend the model to discuss implications for Social Security. I discuss the steady state and the transition from a pay-as-yougo to a fully funded system.
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  • André Silva, 2008. "Taxes and labor supply: Portugal, Europe, and the United States," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 7(2), pages 101-124, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:portec:v:7:y:2008:i:2:p:101-124
    DOI: 10.1007/s10258-008-0029-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Antonio Cutanda & Juan A. Sanchis, 2022. "Labour supply responses to income tax changes in Spain," Working Papers 2207, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    2. Margarida Duarte & Diego Restuccia, 2007. "The structural transformation and aggregate productivity in Portugal," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 6(1), pages 23-46, April.
    3. Bernardino Adao & Andre C. Silva, 2017. "Sub-optimality of the Friedman rule with distorting taxes," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp623, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    4. Antonio Cutanda & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2023. "Human capital and the intertemporal substitution for leisure: empirical evidence for Spain," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 22(3), pages 377-396, September.
    5. Klaus Masuch & Ramon Gómez-Salvador & Nadine Leiner-Killinger & Rolf Strauch & Jarkko Turunen & Melanie Ward-Warmedinger & Jan De Mulder & Harald Stahl & Yvonne McCarthy & Daphne Nicolitsas & Aitor La, 2008. "Labour supply and employment in the euro area countries - developments and challenges," Occasional Paper Series 87, European Central Bank.
    6. Antonio Cutanda & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2021. "Joint estimation of intertemporal labor and consumption decisions: evidence from Spanish households headed by working men," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 611-629, December.
    7. Alfredo Pereira & Jorge Andraz, 2012. "Social security and economic performance in Portugal: after all that has been said and done how much has actually changed?," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 11(2), pages 83-100, August.
    8. Álvaro A. Novo & André C. Silva, 2017. "Can a search model predict the effects of an increase in the benefit duration? Evidence from the Portuguese unemployment insurance reform," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Bernardino Adão & André C. Silva, 2019. "Real transfers and the Friedman rule," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(1), pages 155-177, February.
    10. Antonio Cutanda & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2022. "Human capital and the intertemporal substitution for leisure: empirical evidence for Spain," Working Papers 2116, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor supply; Consumption tax; Labor income tax; Welfare; Social security; E6; H3;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents

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