We study the empirical relationship between labor taxation and pretax wages in Italy. We find that higher tax progressivity increases pretax wages. To explain this result, we introduce in an informal way a relative wage effect and argue that the combination of this effect with the labor supply...

We model a two sector economy with unionized labor markets and competitive product markets, where workers and unions care about their relative wages, and show that the presence of a relative wage concern could help generation a positive relationship between tax progressivity and wage pressure.

Public finance solutions to high unemployment in Europe have often been advocated during the past years. With unemployment concentrated among the young and unskilled, it has been suggested that the reduction of social security contributions for low wage earnings, financed by a carbon tax, could...

We study the empirical relationship between labor taxation and pretax wages in Italy. We find that higher tax progressivity increases pretax wages. To explain this result, we introduce in an informal way a relative wage effect and argue that the combination of this effect with the labor supply...

We model a two sector economy with unionized labor markets and competitive product markets, where workers and unions care about their relative wages, and show that the presence of a relative wage concern could help generation a positive relationship between tax progressivity and wage pressure.

We study the empirical relationship between labor taxation and pretax wages in Italy. We find that higher tax progressivity increases pretax wages. To explain this result, we introduce in an informal way a relative wage effect and argue that the combination of this effect with the labor supply...

We model a two sector economy with unionized labor markets and competitive product markets, where workers and unions care about their relative wages, and show that the presence of a relative wage concern could help generation a positive relationship between tax progressivity and wage pressure.

In a multisector economy with unionized labor markets, the interdependence of union wage claims typical of industrial bargaining affects the relationship between tax progressivity and wage pressure, which varies in a nonlinear fashion with the nature of the wage bargain, and can be hump-shaped....