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Who Bears the Burden of Social Security Contributions in Germany? Evidence from 35 Years of Administrative Data

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  • Kai-Uwe Müller
  • Michael Neumann

Abstract

This paper provides evidence over a long time period on the question of who bears the burden of social security contributions (SSC) in Germany. Following Alvaredo et al. (2016) we exploit kinks in the budget set generated by a drop in the marginal SSC rate at earnings caps. Based on cross-sectional earnings distributions the framework does not rely on policy reforms. Applying the approach to administrative data for West Germany facilitates a comprehensive incidence analysis between 1975 and 2010. We find that neither employers nor employees shift a substantial part of their SSC burden. These results are consistent over the whole time period and in robustness checks corroborating previous findings. A small trend towards a slight increase in the SSC burden falling on employees is not statistically significant.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai-Uwe Müller & Michael Neumann, 2016. "Who Bears the Burden of Social Security Contributions in Germany? Evidence from 35 Years of Administrative Data," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1627, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1627
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    2. Antoine Bozio & Thomas Breda & Julien Grenet, 2017. "Incidence and Behavioural Response to Social Security Contributions: An Analysis of Kink Points in France," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 141-163, June.
    3. Neumann, M., 2017. "Earnings responses to social security contributions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 55-73.
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    10. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 1987. "The demand for labor in the long run," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 429-471, Elsevier.
    11. Nicole Bosch & Maja Micevska-Scharf, 2017. "Who Bears the Burden of Social Security Contributions in the Netherlands? Evidence from Dutch Administrative Data," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 205-224, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Erich Battistin & Agar Brugiavini & Enrico Rettore & Guglielmo Weber, 2009. "The Retirement Consumption Puzzle: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 2209-2226, December.
    2. KODAMA Naomi & YOKOYAMA Izumi, 2017. "Labor Market Impact of Labor Cost Increase without Productivity Gain: A natural experiment from the 2003 social insurance premium reform in Japan," Discussion papers 17093, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Facundo Alvaredo & Thomas Breda & Barra Roantree & Emmanuel Saez, 2017. "Contribution Ceilings and the Incidence of Payroll Taxes," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 129-140, June.
    4. Kim, Jinyoung & Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2022. "Labor market institutions and the incidence of payroll taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    5. Antoine Bozio & Thomas Breda & Julien Grenet, 2017. "Incidence and Behavioural Response to Social Security Contributions: An Analysis of Kink Points in France," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 141-163, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Incidence; social security contributions; discontinuities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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