Employment Structure and the Rise of the Modern Tax System

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jensen, Anders
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191528
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 213-234
• 关键词: Income taxation; informality; BUSINESS; GROWTH

摘要

This paper builds a new microdatabase that covers 100 countries at all income levels and long-run time series in the United States (1870-2010) and Mexico (1960-2010) to document how the modern tax system arises over development. I establish a new set of stylized facts, which show that the income tax exemption threshold decreases in the income distribution as a country develops, tracking growth in the employee share of employment that occurs gradually further down the income distribution. Additional evidence supports the interpretation that the rise in third-party covered income through increases in employee share drives expansions of the income tax base over development.