TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Lavecchia, Adam M.
AU  - McKercher, Robert
AU  - Tazhitdinova, Alisa
        TI  - Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Impact of Taxation on Canadian Inter-Provincial Migration
        PY  - 2026/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18544
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18544
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - migration
KW  - taxation
KW  - within-country mobility
        ER  -