Taxation, risk aversion, and the wage gaps in tournaments

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Abstract

In this paper’s tournament model, the effect of income taxes on workers’ effort depends on risk preferences. At risk neutrality and low levels of worker risk aversion effort falls with higher taxes, whereas with sufficiently high risk aversion effort increases with tax rises. In the former, firms respond to higher taxes by reducing the wage spread and increasing it in the latter. It sheds light on why top earners’ income has risen with tax reductions over the last five decades. With females being more risk averse it suggests tax reductions contribute to the CEO gender pay gap.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)834-845
Number of pages12
JournalOxford Economic Papers
Volume69
Issue number3
Early online date4 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2017

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank two anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Any remaining errors are my own.

Keywords

  • J01
  • H31

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