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Does Tax Evasion Affect Unemployment and Educational Choice?

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  • Kolm, Ann-Sofie

    (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School)

  • Larsen, Birthe

    (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School)

Abstract

While examining the macroeconomic effects of government tax and punishment policies, this paper develops a three-sector general equilibrium model featuring matching frictions and worker-firm wage bargaining. Workers are assumed to differ in ability, and the choice of education is determined endogenously. Job opportunities in an informal sector are available only to workers who choose not to acquire higher education. We find that increased punishment of informal activities increases the number of educated workers and reduces the number of unemployed workers. Considering welfare, we show it is optimal to choose punishment rates so to more than fully counteract the distortion created by the government’s inability to tax the informal sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Kolm, Ann-Sofie & Larsen, Birthe, 2006. "Does Tax Evasion Affect Unemployment and Educational Choice?," Working Papers 12-2003, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2003_012
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    15. Freeman, Richard B., 1999. "The economics of crime," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 52, pages 3529-3571, Elsevier.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nicoletta Batini & Young-Bae Kim & Paul Levine & Emanuela Lotti, 2009. "Informal Labour and Credit Markets: A Survey," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0609, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    2. Mariano Bosch & Julen Esteban-Pretel, 2009. "Cyclical Informality and Unemployment," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-613, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    3. Bosch, Mariano, 2006. "Job creation and job destruction in the presence of informal labour markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19785, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Castillo, Paul & Montoro, Carlos, 2010. "Monetary Policy in the presence of Informal Labour Markets," Working Papers 2010-009, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú.
    5. James Albrecht & Lucas Navarro & Susan Vroman, 2009. "The Effects of Labour Market Policies in an Economy with an Informal Sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(539), pages 1105-1129, July.
    6. Rita Cappariello & Roberta Zizza, 2010. "Dropping the Books and Working Off the Books," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(2), pages 139-162, June.
    7. Paul Castillo B. & Carlos Montoro Ll., 2012. "Inflation Dynamics in the Presence of Informal Labour Markets," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 15(1), pages 4-31, April.
    8. Österholm, Pär, 2004. "Estimating the Relationship between Age Structure and GDP in the OECD Using Panel Cointegration Methods," Working Paper Series 2004:13, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    9. Bosch, Mariano & Esteban-Pretel, Julen, 2012. "Job creation and job destruction in the presence of informal markets," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 270-286.
    10. Salar, Laleena & Zaman, Khalid & Khilji, Bashir Ahmad & Khan, Muhammad Mushtaq & Lodhi, Mohammad Saeed, 2013. "The consequences of revenue gap in Pakistan: Unveiling the reality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 281-294.
    11. Bosch, Mariano & Maloney, William, 2008. "Cyclical movements in unemployment and informality in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4648, The World Bank.
    12. Ann‐Sofie Kolm & Søren Bo Nielsen, 2008. "Under‐reporting of Income and Labor Market Performance," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(2), pages 195-217, April.
    13. Kameliia Petrova, 2016. "Entrepreneurship And The Informal Economy: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-21, June.
    14. Isilda Mara & Edlira Narazani, 2011. "The Effects of Flat Tax on Inequality and Informal Employment: The Case of Albania," wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers 94, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax evasion; underground economy; education; matching; unemployment.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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