The quality of the estimators of the ETI

• The elasticity of taxable income (ETI) is a central statistic for tax policy design. One purpose of the present paper is to use Monte Carlo simulation techniques to assess the bias and precision of the prevalent estimators in the literature, the IV-regression estimator and the bunching estimator. Thereby, we aim to provide arguments in favor of, or against, using these methods. Another is to suggest indirect inference estimation to improve the quality of the measurement of the ETI. While IV-regression estimators perform well in terms of bias under certain conditions, they are more variable than bunching estimators. We also find that bunching estimators can be biased downward. The estimators based on indirect inference principles are practically unbiased and more precise than the other estimators.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Nationalekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik -- Sannolikhetsteori och statistik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics -- Probability Theory and Statistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Bunching

Elasticity of taxable income

Income tax

Indirect inference

IV estimation

Monte Carlo simulations

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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