Interregional Demand for Workers and the Effects of Labor Income Taxation

Abstract

We study the short-run impacts of labor income taxation in an aggregate economy of N>2 regions. The distinct regions demand workers. Each region is endowed with one unit of immobile capital. The aggregate economy also has one unit of labor that is mobile across the regions. All regions produce a final good with identical Cobb-Douglas production functions. The price of output is normalized to unity. We perform five tasks. First, we focus on the benchmark case in which no region taxes either capital or labor. We find the equilibrium wage, the allocation of workers across the regions, and the total income of labor and capital. Second, we study the impact of a tax τ on labor income in region 1 when the other N-1 regions do not tax labor income. We ascertain the after-tax return to labor in region 1, the equilibrium wage, and the allocation of labor across the regions. Third, we compute the total income of capital and labor and the tax revenue in region 1. Fourth, we discuss whether workers in region 1 are better off with a tax on labor income. Finally, we comment on the policy implications of our research.