Taxes and Growth:
From CBPP:
What Really Is the Evidence on Taxes and Growth?
From California:
Stateâs job growth defies predictions after tax increases
These results may surprise those who have heard that tax increases are job killers. Taxes can do that â if what is being taxed directly applies to job creation. For example, a 10 percent increase in payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare and state disability) would probably hamper job growth, said David Neumark, chancellorâs professor of economics and director of the Center for Economics & Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine.
Neumark said he asks his students, âDoes raising income tax rates reduce hiring?â
âThe answer is no. What firms care about when deciding how many workers to hire is the marginal product of workers and the marginal cost of those workers. So if you are an employer and your personal income tax rate is increased, that does not raise the marginal cost of your workers, but it may encourage you to work a little less hard,â Neumark noted, applying standard economic theory.
Some research into tax rates indicates that high rates have the opposite effect: People may work harder, trying to make more money to achieve a desired after-tax income and may slough off if tax rates are lowered. This is known to be the case for people who have a savings target for money to leave their children and are subject to estate taxes â they save more to leave the after-tax sum they prefer, but save less when the tax is lowered or no longer applies to them.
The empirical evidence also shows that the best-paying jobs tend to be clustered in states (and countries) with high taxes. The same tends to be true of wealth creators, including the most money-motivated among scientists, and existing wealth holders not actively engaged in business.
....
How taxes are spent is also crucial to the effect on jobs. Increasing taxes can, in some cases, encourage job growth.
Highly skilled and educated workers tend to place a high value on commonwealth amenities, such as quality public schools and colleges; extensive parks; honest and reliable law enforcement; as well as fast-responding ambulance and fire suppression services.
Daniel Wilson, a Federal Reserve Bank economist in San Francisco, has been studying the job migration patterns of so-called star scientists, especially those who hold many patents.
His preliminary data show a tendency for such star scientists to move to Washington state, which has no income tax, but not to Texas, which also does not tax incomes. That seems to indicate a preference among such high performers for public amenities and, perhaps, the climate and outdoor options of the West Coast.
Wilson noted that New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, all high-tax states, also attract star scientists, lending more credence to the idea that commonwealth amenities are valuable to such workers.
