Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Did Income Taxes Bite? Evidence from High-Income Earners in Sweden, 1915–1935

Authen, Elise Benedikte LU (2026) EKHS12 20261
Department of Economic History
Abstract (Swedish)
This thesis examines how early twentieth-century Swedish tax records were shaped by the interaction between progressive taxation, taxpayer behaviour and local assessment institutions. It does so by bringing a modern bunching framework, rarely applied in historical studies, to 20,830 individual-level observations from Swedish taxation lists for 1915, 1919, 1927 and 1935, including 7,942 observations transcribed for this thesis. This makes it possible to test whether recorded incomes display excess mass around selected marginal tax thresholds in a historical setting usually studied through aggregate top-income series. The results show limited but not absent evidence of bunching. Evidence consistent with bunching appears at three thresholds:... (More)
This thesis examines how early twentieth-century Swedish tax records were shaped by the interaction between progressive taxation, taxpayer behaviour and local assessment institutions. It does so by bringing a modern bunching framework, rarely applied in historical studies, to 20,830 individual-level observations from Swedish taxation lists for 1915, 1919, 1927 and 1935, including 7,942 observations transcribed for this thesis. This makes it possible to test whether recorded incomes display excess mass around selected marginal tax thresholds in a historical setting usually studied through aggregate top-income series. The results show limited but not absent evidence of bunching. Evidence consistent with bunching appears at three thresholds: 1919 at 6,000 kronor, 1919 at 10,000 kronor, and 1927 at 3,000 kronor, while the remaining thresholds provide weaker or statistically inconclusive evidence. This suggests that precise threshold-based adjustment existed in some cases, but was not a general or stable feature of high-income tax reporting in the selected Swedish tax records.

The thesis argues that this uneven pattern must be understood historically. Early Swedish income taxation combined formal progressive thresholds with local assessment procedures, documentation requirements and administrative review. Reported income was therefore shaped not only by economic incentives, but also by how income was declared, assessed and recorded. The findings do not imply that taxation had no effect, but they provide little support for the view that Sweden’s early twentieth-century decline in recorded top incomes was driven by systematic threshold-based adjustment in reported income. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Authen, Elise Benedikte LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHS12 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
9243640
date added to LUP
2026-09-07 14:14:15
date last changed
2026-09-07 14:14:15
@misc{9243640,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines how early twentieth-century Swedish tax records were shaped by the interaction between progressive taxation, taxpayer behaviour and local assessment institutions. It does so by bringing a modern bunching framework, rarely applied in historical studies, to 20,830 individual-level observations from Swedish taxation lists for 1915, 1919, 1927 and 1935, including 7,942 observations transcribed for this thesis. This makes it possible to test whether recorded incomes display excess mass around selected marginal tax thresholds in a historical setting usually studied through aggregate top-income series. The results show limited but not absent evidence of bunching. Evidence consistent with bunching appears at three thresholds: 1919 at 6,000 kronor, 1919 at 10,000 kronor, and 1927 at 3,000 kronor, while the remaining thresholds provide weaker or statistically inconclusive evidence. This suggests that precise threshold-based adjustment existed in some cases, but was not a general or stable feature of high-income tax reporting in the selected Swedish tax records. 

The thesis argues that this uneven pattern must be understood historically. Early Swedish income taxation combined formal progressive thresholds with local assessment procedures, documentation requirements and administrative review. Reported income was therefore shaped not only by economic incentives, but also by how income was declared, assessed and recorded. The findings do not imply that taxation had no effect, but they provide little support for the view that Sweden’s early twentieth-century decline in recorded top incomes was driven by systematic threshold-based adjustment in reported income.}},
  author       = {{Authen, Elise Benedikte}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Did Income Taxes Bite? Evidence from High-Income Earners in Sweden, 1915–1935}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}