Layoff Tax and the Employment of the Elderly

Mario Schnalzenberger () and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

No 2008-04, NRN working papers from The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: In 1996 Austria introduced a tax for the layoff of older workers, which was tightened in 2000. The regulation requires employers to pay a tax of up to 170 percent of the gross monthly income when they give notice to employees aged 50 or more. We use data from Austrian social security records to investigate if such layoff taxes lead to less firing of older workers. We compare a control group of workers aged nearly 50 with the treatment group above 50. We apply a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the difference in the displacement probability of all prime aged workers. Results show substantial reductions in layoff behavior for workers aged 50 and above after the tightening of the tax.

Keywords: Layoff tax; labor demand; employment; elderly workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J14 J45 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2008-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Layoff tax and employment of the elderly (2009)
Working Paper: Layoff Tax and the Employment of the Elderly (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2008_04

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