Over the 1967-2015 period, net wage inequality has decreased in France by 25%, in contrast to the significant increase experienced by most developed countries. Less well known is the fact that labor cost inequality has actually increased by 8% over the same period. We show that, (a) standard...

This paper estimates the effects of payroll taxes on workers and firms. Using temporary and long-lasting payroll tax cuts across different municipalities in Finland and rich firm-level data, we find that payroll taxes affect wages at larger firms but not at medium-sized and smaller firms. These...

Despite unambiguous predictions of the canonical model of a competitive labor market, empirical studies on the labor market effects of payroll taxation provide conflicting evidence. Our meta-analysis shows that varying degrees of labor market competitiveness across places and time could be one...

I study a corporate tax reform in Brazil that reduces eligible firms’ payroll tax liability from an average of 31% to 12% of their total wage bill. The tax cut generates a 9.1% increase on employment and zero effect on wages. However, the reform deteriorates within firm wage inequality....