IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/arqudp/88.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How do Germans react to the commuting allowance?

Author

Listed:
  • Weiss, Martin

Abstract

I research the consequences of changes in the deductibility of commuting costs in Germany from 2001 to 2006. Official figures provided by the Federal Statistical Office highlight the fact that German taxpayers claimed deductions for commuting allowances to the tune of 23-29 billion e over the years 2001-2004. Granting or not granting these deductions thus has wide ranging fiscal implications, a point made more poignant by the fact that Anglo-Saxon countries have never allowed them. To determine whether Germans do react to the commuting allowance, I exploit the variation in the amount per kilometer granted between fiscal years 2003 and 2004 by looking at taxpayers featuring sufficient labor earnings and longish commuting distances whose deductions unambiguously exceed the basic allowance in the German Income Tax Code. I try to find evidence of changes along several behavioral margins in response to variations in the deduction granted. Labor supply behavior turns out to be unresponsive while the commuting distances do show a palpable reaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Weiss, Martin, 2009. "How do Germans react to the commuting allowance?," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 88, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:arqudp:88
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/30852/1/611358476.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Ommeren, Jos N. & van der Straaten, J. Willemijn, 2008. "The effect of search imperfections on commuting behaviour: Evidence from employed and self-employed workers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 127-147, March.
    2. Van Ommeren, Jos & Fosgerau, Mogens, 2009. "Workers' marginal costs of commuting," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 38-47, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jianghong Li & Matthias Pollmann-Schult, 2016. "Fathers’ Commute to Work and Children’s Social and Emotional Well-Being in Germany," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 488-501, September.
    2. Li, Jianghong & Pollmann-Schult, Matthias, 2016. "Fathers' Commute to Work and Children's Social and Emotional Well-Being in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 488-501.
    3. Heuermann, Daniel F. & Assmann, Franziska & vom Berge, Philipp & Freund, Florian, 2017. "The distributional effect of commuting subsidies - Evidence from geo-referenced data and a large-scale policy reform," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 11-24.
    4. Voßmerbäumer, Jan & Wagner, Franz W., 2013. "Steuerwirkungen betrieblicher Entgeltpolitik," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 144, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2024. "Commuting, Wages, and Household Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 17128, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Angela Stefania Bergantino & Leonardo Madio, 2015. "The Travel-to-work. Which factors matter? An analysis on regional labor market in UK," ERSA conference papers ersa15p888, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Palacios, Saúl, 2021. "Desplazamientos y autoempleo en Francia: diferencias por género [Commuting y self-employment in France: gender differences]," MPRA Paper 106555, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jorge González Chapela, 2012. "The Effect of Residential Location on Retirement Age: Theory and Some Evidence on Male Behaviour in the US," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(10), pages 2153-2168, August.
    5. Peter Bäckström & Erika Sandow & Olle Westerlund, 2016. "Commuting and timing of retirement," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 125-152, January.
    6. Reichelt, Malte & Haas, Anette, 2015. "Commuting farther and earning more? : how employment density moderates workers commuting distance," IAB-Discussion Paper 201533, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Sergii TROSHCHENKOV, 2016. "Return to Commuting Distance in Sweden," Departmental Working Papers 2016-08, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    8. Hirte, Georg & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2018. "The impact of anti-congestion policies and the role of labor-supply margins," CEPIE Working Papers 04/18, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    9. Dimitrios TSIOTAS & Nikolaos AXELIS & Serafeim POLYZOS, 2022. "Detecting City-Dipoles In Greece Based On Intercity Commuting," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(1), pages 11-30, June.
    10. Stefan P.T. Groot & Henri L.F. de Groot & Paolo Veneri, 2012. "The Educational Bias in Commuting Patterns: Micro-Evidence for the Netherlands," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-080/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Giovanni Russo & Jos Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2012. "The university workers’ willingness to pay for commuting," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(6), pages 1121-1132, November.
    12. Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Velilla, Jorge & Ortega, Raquel, 2022. "Revisiting excess commuting and self-employment: The case of Latin America," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1179, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Ismir Mulalic & Jos N. Van Ommeren & Ninette Pilegaard, 2014. "Wages and Commuting: Quasi‐natural Experiments' Evidence from Firms that Relocate," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(579), pages 1086-1105, September.
    14. Borghorst, Malte & Mulalic, Ismir & van Ommeren, Jos, 2021. "Commuting, Children and the Gender Wage Gap," Working Papers 15-2021, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    15. José Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Jorge Velilla, 2024. "Intermediate activities while commuting," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1185-1220, September.
    16. Viviana Carriel & Marcelo Lufin & Manuel Pérez-Trujillo, 2022. "Do workers negative self-select when they commute? Evidence for the Chilean case of long-distance commuting," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(1), pages 255-279, August.
    17. Mette Deding & Trine Filges & Jos Van Ommeren, 2009. "Spatial Mobility And Commuting: The Case Of Two‐Earner Households," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 113-147, February.
    18. Gutiérrez-i-Puigarnau, Eva & van Ommeren, Jos N., 2010. "Labour supply and commuting," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 82-89, July.
    19. Thomas Skora & Heiko Rüger & Nico Stawarz, 2020. "Commuting and the Motherhood Wage Gap: Evidence from Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    20. Isabelle Wachter & Christian Holz-Rau, 2022. "Gender differences in work-related high mobility differentiated by partnership and parenthood status," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1737-1764, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:arqudp:88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.arqus.info/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.