Redesigning Taxes to Increase Economic Activity? Evidence from a French Business Tax Reform (JMP) PDF

single-authored

Empirical evidence of input-based taxes is scarce. I exploit a reform of the French local business tax that shifted the tax burden from both labor and capital to capital only. I apply a dynamic differences-in-differences approach leveraging cross-sectional variations in firms‘ exposure to the reform. Using rich administrative data, I show that the reform boosts firms‘ investment, particularly for those initially cash-constrained. For a 1% reduction in taxes, tangible assets increase by 0.43%. This generates significant productivity gains. Wages are not affected. I estimate a negative effect on employment. This reduction does not indicate direct job cuts but reflects differences in employment growth rates between capital-intensive and labor-intensive firms, with capital-intensive firms increasing employment more rapidly. I explain this difference by varying tax sensitivity based on whether firms can deduct business tax payments from the corporate income tax.

When Does Subsidized Employment Work? Unpacking the Small Average Effects of Youth Employment Programs

with Valentina Melentyeva and Eloïse Menestrier (new version coming soon)

We investigate when subsidized employment generates lasting gains for disadvantaged youth using France’s Emplois d’avenir program. Linking program contracts to longitudinal administrative data, we estimate effects using a staggered difference-in-differences design with regression adjustment and use principal strata and Lee-type bounds to distinguish job creation from effects on participants who would have worked anyway. Six years after entry, the program raises employment by 6.4 percentage points and annual earnings by about €660, with substantially larger gains for older entrants facing weaker outside options. About three quarters of participants would have been employed anyway, while 6 percent remain employed because of the program. Persistent earnings gains are driven by these program-created jobs; among those who would have worked anyway, we find no earning gains. Mediation analysis shows that the program increases access to cognitively demanding jobs more clearly for men, although their earnings payoff is substantially larger for women. The program also raises parenthood by about 4 percentage points for both genders, whose asymmetric earnings consequences help explain why substantial gender-specific mechanisms translate into only a small overall gender gap in program effects.

Business Taxes and Firms’ Location

with Emilie Sartre and Sebastian Siegloch

Intermunicipal Cooperation and Economic Activity

with Emilie Sartre

The Effects of Family Planning Centers in the 21st Century

single-authored

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Migration Patterns of High-Skilled Workers: Evidence From Alumni Databases

with Youssef Benzarti - Pre-doctoral project