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What Do Immigrants Value Most About Switzerland? Evidence of the Relative Importance of Income Taxes

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  • Mario Morger

Abstract

This study investigates whether migrants, once they have decided to move to Switzerland, prefer to settle in municipalities that feature low income taxes. In line with the existing literature, results from cluster-specific count data models indicate that income taxes are a significant pull factor for international migration decisions. The same is true with respect to intra-national migration. However, dominance analysis suggests that the relative impact of taxes compared to other locational factors is rather low. Urbanity characteristics, labor-market, and network effects are by far the most important factors to influence the choice of destination municipality.

Suggested Citation

  • Mario Morger, 2013. "What Do Immigrants Value Most About Switzerland? Evidence of the Relative Importance of Income Taxes," CESifo Working Paper Series 4134, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_4134
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    Cited by:

    1. Slotwinski, Michaela & Schmidheiny, Kurt, 2014. "Behavioral Responses to Local Tax Rates: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Foreigners Tax Scheme in Switzerland," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100292, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Mario Morger, 2017. "Heterogeneity in Income Tax Capitalization: Evidence from the Swiss Housing Market," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 153(3), pages 227-259, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; tax competition; dominance analysis; relative importance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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