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The unusual French policy mix towards labour market inequalities

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  • Antoine Bozio

Abstract

This short paper presents an overview of the French policy mix towards labour market inequalities, consisting of a high minimum wage together with targeted payroll tax cuts around the minimum wage. It reviews the recent literature documenting the impact of that policy mix on employment and wage inequality. The main takeaways are that pre‐tax wage inequality has been increasing in France rather like it has in the UK and the US, while net wage inequality has decreased and then remained stable. The employment experience for the middle age group is also very close in France to the one in the UK and the US, while it differs markedly at young and older ages. The paper offers two more general thoughts on how to make progress in comparing policy options. First, most studies tend to give too much weight to tax and benefit reforms in being able to reduce inequality as they disregard incidence mechanisms, and fail to incorporate properly longer‐term effects of other policies on pre‐tax inequality. Second, the design of effective policy should always incorporate simplicity and salience. Failure to do so is likely to lead to little expected impact of such policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoine Bozio, 2024. "The unusual French policy mix towards labour market inequalities," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 43-54, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:fistud:v:45:y:2024:i:1:p:43-54
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12329
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Saez, Emmanuel & Schoefer, Benjamin & Seim, David, 2021. "Hysteresis from employer subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    2. 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.
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    5. Antoine Bozio & Thomas Breda & Julien Grenet & Arthur Guillouzouic, 2024. "Does Tax-Benefit Linkage Matter for the Incidence of Payroll Taxes?," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-02191315, HAL.
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