Abstract: Tax-incentives is one of the important measures taken by government to promote economic development and improve workers’ welfare. However, this policy may also prompt firms to replace labor with capital, which ultimately reduces employment and wages. Based on the 1998-2007 "Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database", this paper uses and the difference-in-differences method to estimate the effects of VAT transformation policy on firms’ employment and wages. We find that China’s VAT transformation policy significantly reduces employment and wages. The effects are greater in larger, higher initial VAT-rate, higher capital intensity and lower labor intensity firms. These findings indicate that, to support firms development and protect workers’ welfare, the government should introduce some related supporting measures at the same time of tax-incentives.

Key words: tax preference, obtain employment, wages, VAT transformation