Minimum wages, taxes and transfers, and low-income workers

最低工资、税收和转移支付以及低收入工人

• 批准号: 502904079
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Andreas Peichl
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Paris School of Economics (PSE)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/502904079?language=en
• 关键词: Minimum; wages; taxes; transfers; low

Tackling high rates of inequality and in-work poverty has become central to public policy agendas in many developed countries. Policymakers have often turned to two particular tools: cash transfers (sometimes called ‘tax credits’) from the government to low income workers, or firms that hire them, and minimum wages. But the impacts of these policies, and in particular their role in reducing poverty and increasing living standards, cannot be adequately understood independently from one another. Understanding how these key tools combine, and how their effects are shaped by the wider economic and policy environment, is crucial for building the mix of policies that is best targeted at boosting living standards for low income workers.This project will seek to enhance our understanding of such policies in several key ways.First, we will study how providing tax credits to low income workers can affect their wages. Such transfers incentivise more people to work – but that potentially allows employers to reduce the wages they offer. This is of crucial importance – if wages do fall in response to the introduction or expansion of tax credits, that fundamentally undermines their purpose.Second, we will examine what the relationship between tax credits and wages depends upon. For example, minimum wages provide a floor which wages cannot fall below – so using minimum wages and tax credits together might prove to be an effective way to boost low income workers’ living standards. The tax credit-wage relationship might also depend upon the presence of unions, who can strengthen workers’ bargaining power; or it might depend upon how many employers there are and thus what kind of bargaining power they have.Third, we will analyse how tax credits, other tax or transfer policies, and minimum wages work together to affect household incomes. Tax credits have a direct effect on household incomes, but – as discussed already – they might reduce workers’ wages. At the same time, they could increase employment, boosting household incomes. Minimum wages can affect not only those actually on the minimum wage, but also those paid a little above as employers raise wages to maintain pay differentials; and they might reduce employment. We will bring together several tools and datasets to comprehensively study the effect of these policies and how they fit together to affect rich and poor households’ incomes.Together, studying these questions will help provide a thorough assessment of the value of tax credits, other tax reforms, and minimum wages – and how they depend on other parts of the economic environment. We will be able to further extend our understanding of these issues by studying them in a parallel way across France, Germany, and the UK. The different settings that these countries provide will allow us to shed light on the institutional arrangements and background conditions that shape the effects of these policies.

在许多发达国家，解决高度不平等和工作中的贫困率已成为公共政策议程的核心。决策者经常转向两种特殊的工具：从政府到低收入工人或雇用他们的公司的现金转移（有时称为“税收抵免”）以及最低工资。但是，这些政策的影响，尤其是它们在减少贫困和增加生活水平中的作用，不能完全独立地彼此独立地理解。了解这些关键工具如何结合，以及它们的影响如何受到广泛的经济和政策环境的影响，对于建立最适合提高低收入工人的生活水平的政策的组合至关重要。该项目将寻求在几种关键方面增强我们对此类政策的理解。我们将研究为低收入的税收提供税收贷方对他们的税收构成如何影响他们的工具。这种转移激励更多的人工作 - 但这有可能使雇主减少他们提供的等待。这至关重要 - 如果等待确实响应引入或扩大税收抵免，这从根本上破坏了它们的目的。第二，我们将研究税收抵免与工资之间的关系取决于什么。例如，最低工资提供了一个钱包不能低于以下的地板 - 因此，将最低工资和税收抵免一起使用可能是提高低收入工人生活水平的有效方法。税收信用工资关系也可能取决于工会的存在，他们可以加强工人的议价能力；或者这可能取决于有多少员工，因此他们拥有什么样的议价能力。三分之二，我们将分析税收抵免，其他税收或转让政策以及最低工资如何共同影响家庭收入。税收抵免对家庭收入有直接影响，但是 - 正如已经讨论的那样 - 它们可能会降低工人的工资。同时，他们可以增加就业，增加家庭收入。最低工资不仅会影响最低工资上实际上的工资，而且还会影响雇主提高工资以维持薪酬差异的工资，而那些工资也有所支付。他们可能会减少就业。我们将汇总几种工具和数据集，以全面研究这些政策的影响以及它们如何融合影响富人和贫困家庭的收入。我们将能够通过在法国，德国和英国以平行方式研究这些问题来进一步扩展我们对这些问题的理解。这些国家提供的不同环境将使我们能够阐明塑造这些政策影响的机构安排和背景条件。