-
Market adjustments to tax evasion alter factor
and product prices, which determine the true impacts and beneficiaries of
tax evasion
How does tax evasion affect the distribution of
income? In the standard analysis of tax evasion, all the benefits are
assumed to accrue to tax evaders. However, tax evasion has other impacts
that determine its true effects. As factors of production move from
tax-compliant to tax-evading (informal) sectors, these market adjustments
generate changes in relative prices of products and factors, thereby
affecting what consumers pay and what workers earn. As a result, at least
some of the gains from evasion are shifted to consumers of goods produced by
tax evaders, and at least some of the returns to tax evaders are competed
away via lower wages.
MoreLess
-
Keeping older workers in the workforce longer
not only doesn’t harm the employment of younger workers, but might actually
help both
The fiscal sustainability of state pensions is
a central concern of policymakers in nearly every advanced economy.
Policymakers have attempted to ensure the sustainability of these programs
in recent decades by raising retirement ages. However, there are concerns
that keeping older workers in the workforce for longer might have negative
consequences for younger workers. Since youth unemployment is a pressing
problem throughout advanced and developing countries, it is important to
consider the impact of these policies on the employment prospects of the
young.
MoreLess
-
Despite major efforts at equal pay legislation,
gender pay inequality still exists—how can this be put right?
Despite equal pay legislation dating back 50
years, American women still earn 18% less than their male counterparts. In
the UK, with its Equal Pay Act of 1970, and France, which legislated in
1972, the gap is 17% and 10% respectively, and in Australia it remains
around 14%. Interestingly, the gender pay gap is relatively small for the
young but increases as men and women grow older. Similarly, it is large when
comparing married men and women, but smaller for singles. Just what can
explain these wage patterns? And what can governments do to speed up wage
convergence to close the gender pay gap? Clearly, the gender pay gap
continues to be an important policy issue.
MoreLess
-
Workers and policymakers may fear that
privatization leads to job losses and wage cuts, but what’s the empirical
evidence?
Conventional wisdom and prevailing economic
theory hold that the new owners of a privatized firm will cut jobs and
wages. But this ignores the possibility that new owners will expand the
firm’s scale, with potentially positive effects on employment, wages, and
productivity. Evidence generally shows these forces to be offsetting,
usually resulting in small employment and earnings effects and sometimes in
large, positive effects on productivity and scale. Foreign ownership usually
has positive effects, and the effects of domestic privatization tend to be
larger in countries with a more competitive business environment.
MoreLess
-
Temporary government schemes can have a
positive economic effect
Government schemes that compensate workers for
the loss of income while they are on short hours (known as short-time work
compensation schemes) make it easier for employers to temporarily reduce
hours worked so that labor is better matched to output requirements. Because
the employers do not lay off these staff, the schemes help to maintain
permanent employment levels during recessions. However, they can create
inefficiency in the labor market, and might limit labor market access for
freelancers and those looking to work part-time.
MoreLess
-
Countries give basic education and health
care to everyone, and for good reasons—why not basic income?
Globalization and automation have brought
about a tremendous increase in productivity, with enormous benefits, but
also a dramatic reallocation of jobs, skills, and incomes, which might
jeopardize the full realization of those benefits. Current social policies
may not be adequate to successfully redistribute the gains from automation
and globalization or to advance the reallocation of jobs and skills. Under
certain circumstances, an unconditional basic income might be a better
alternative for achieving these goals. It is simple, transparent, and has
low administrative costs, though it may require higher taxes or a
cut/reallocation of other public expenditures.
MoreLess
-
Happiness is key to a productive economy, and a
job remains key to individual happiness, also under robotization
Measures of individual happiness, or well-being,
can guide labor market policies. Individual unemployment, as well as the
rate of unemployment in society, have a negative effect on happiness. In
contrast, employment protection and un-employment benefits or a basic income
can contribute to happiness—though when such policies prolong unintended
unemployment, the net effect on national happiness is negative. Active labor
market policies that create more job opportunities increase happiness, which
in turn increases productivity. Measures of individual happiness should
therefore guide labor market policy more explicitly, also with substantial
robotization in production.
MoreLess
-
When minimum wages are introduced or raised, are
there fewer jobs?
The potential benefits of higher minimum wages
come from the higher wages for affected workers, some of whom are in poor or
low-income families. The potential downside is that a higher minimum wage
may discourage firms from employing the low-wage, low-skill workers that
minimum wages are intended to help. If minimum wages reduce employment of
low-skill workers, then minimum wages are not a “free lunch” with which to
help poor and low-income families, but instead pose a trade-off of benefits
for some versus costs for others. Research findings are not unanimous, but
especially for the US, evidence suggests that minimum wages reduce the jobs
available to low-skill workers.
MoreLess
-
Whether raising minimum wages reduces—or
increases—poverty depends on the characteristics of the labor market
Raising the minimum wage in developing countries
could increase or decrease poverty, depending on labor market
characteristics. Minimum wages target formal sector workers—a minority in
most developing countries—many of whom do not live in poor households.
Whether raising minimum wages reduces poverty depends not only on whether
formal sector workers lose jobs as a result, but also on whether low-wage
workers live in poor households, how widely minimum wages are enforced, how
minimum wages affect informal workers, and whether social safety nets are in
place.
MoreLess
-
Reliable estimates of taxpayer effects are
essential for complete economic analyses of the costs and benefits of
immigration
Taxpayer effects are a central part of the
total economic costs and benefits of immigration, but they have not received
much study. These effects are the additional or lower taxes paid by
native-born households due to the difference between tax revenues paid and
benefits received by immigrant households. The effects vary considerably by
immigrant attributes and level of government involvement, with costs usually
diminishing greatly over the long term as immigrants integrate fully into
society.
MoreLess