E-commerce and labour tax avoidance

Abstract

This study evidences one of the adverse effects of e-commerce on labour tax avoidance, and more precisely in the loss of firms’ social security contributions. With a sample of French e-commerce and traditional retail firms, we find that labour tax avoidance is significantly higher in e-commerce than in traditional retail firms. Results are robust to all measures of labour tax avoidance used in this study, to different estimation methods, sample selection criteria and sensitivity analyses. We discuss and conclude on the adverse effects of the digital economy and e-commerce on employees’ welfare and social well-being.