Incidence and Behavioural Response to Social Security Contributions: An Analysis of Kink Points in France

Antoine Bozio, Thomas Breda () and Julien Grenet

PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) from HAL

Abstract: We study the incidence of social security contributions (SSCs) in France relying on the strategy developed by Alvaredo et al. (De Econ, 2017. doi:10.1007/s10645-017-9294-7). This strategy infers the incidence of SSCSs from the discontinuities in earnings distributions created by kink points in the SSC schedule. Using administrative data on earnings for the period 1976–2010, we study approximately 200 such kink points and do not find that they systematically induce a discontinuity in the distribution of gross earnings. This allows us to reject the hypothesis that SSCs are incident on workers, at least locally around kinks. Additionally, we exploit the large variations in SSC rates across kinks and years to estimate the local incidence of both employer and employee SSCs around these thresholds. We find that employer SSCs are shifted to employers while employee SSCs are shifted to employees. These findings are consistent with the economic incidence of SSCs being aligned with their statutory incidence, locally around kink points.

Keywords: Social security contributions; Payroll tax; Tax incidence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published in Economist, 2017, 165 (2), pp.141-163. ⟨10.1007/s10645-017-9297-4⟩

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Journal Article: Incidence and Behavioural Response to Social Security Contributions: An Analysis of Kink Points in France (2017)
Working Paper: Incidence and Behavioural Response to Social Security Contributions: An Analysis of Kink Points in France (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:pseptp:hal-01629379

DOI: 10.1007/s10645-017-9297-4

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