Does Tax-Benefit Linkage Matter for the Incidence of Payroll Taxes?
分析了法国六次大规模工资税和所得税改革对工资的影响，发现当缴费与预期福利有强透明关联时，税负完全转嫁给工人；否则转嫁有限。
Abstract We analyse earnings responses to six large payroll tax and income tax reforms in France. Our findings indicate full pass-through to workers when there is a strong and transparent link between contributions and expected benefits. In contrast, employer payroll taxes with no tax-benefit linkage exhibit limited pass-through to workers, while income tax nominally borne by employees show nearly full pass-through. Together with a meta-analysis of the literature, we interpret these results as empirical support for the long-standing hypothesis that tax-benefit linkage matters for the incidence of payroll taxes. In the absence of such linkage, our findings suggest that the individual-level incidence of payroll taxes aligns with their statutory incidence.