Is There an Anti-labor Bias of Taxes?: A Survey of the Evidence from Latin America and around the World

Date
Aug 2011
This paper surveys the macro and micro empirical evidence on the effects of different types of labor taxes (in particular, payroll and income taxes) on firm performance and worker behavior. There is some evidence on the impact of labor taxes in Latin American countries, but there is much more evidence for other countries and, in particular, for industrialized economies. Evidence on industrialized countries will also be included here because it can probably help to understand potential impacts of labor taxes in Latin American countries and can help these countries learn from policy mistakes in more developed countries.