%0 Report
        %A Lavecchia, Adam M.
%A McKercher, Robert
%A Tazhitdinova, Alisa
        %T Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Impact of Taxation on Canadian Inter-Provincial Migration
        %D 2026
        %8 2026 Apr
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18544
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18544
        %X This paper estimates the causal effect of income taxation on inter-provincial migration in Canada. We exploit a major tax decentralization reform between 1998-2001 that led to some provinces lowering their marginal and average tax rates more than others, particularly for top earners. Using a difference-in-differences design, we estimate a population stock-elasticity with respect to the net-of-average-tax rate of about 2.5-3 for young, unmarried high-income individuals. The estimates for older and married individuals are smaller and mostly statistically insignificant. We find that the population stock elasticity estimates are driven by a reduction the likelihood that young, unmarried and high-income individuals emigrate from their province of residence (i.e. out-migration) rather than a change to in-migration. This suggests that individuals react more strongly to tax changes in their home province rather than tax changes in other provinces.
        %K migration
%K taxation
%K within-country mobility