In this paper I evaluate the effects of a regional experiment that reduced payroll taxes by 3?6 percentage points of the firms? wage sum in northern and eastern Finland. I estimate the effect of the payroll tax reduction on firms? employment levels, wage sum and profits, and on workers? hourly...

In this paper we evaluate the effects of a regional experiment that reduced payroll taxes by 3-6 percentage points in Northern Finland for three years. We match each firm in the target region with a similar firm in the control region and estimate the effect of the payroll-tax reduction by...

Based on existing evidence, we know little about how the taxation of small business owners affects their economic activity. This paper studies the effect of two Finnish tax reforms, in 1997 and 1998, on the effort decisions of the owners of small businesses, utilizing both theoretical model and...

This paper provides causally plausible estimates of the effects of consumption taxes in a service sector on prices and demand for restaurant services. We utilize a large VAT reform affecting restaurant meals, where the VAT rate was cut from 22% to 13% in 2010 in Finland. By comparing with...

Consumption tax rates targeted at specific sectors are often reformed without empirical knowledge about the efficiency of these policies. This paper sheds light on the efficiency issue, the potential for welfare improving reform, by studying the incidence of value added taxes (VAT) on prices and...