Steven Davis, a professor of international business and economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, will present the result of his research into the long-term effects of different tax rates in various countries. Davis found that taxes affect work activity directly through labor supply, labor demand, and also indirectly through government spending, which is determined by available tax revenue such as unemployment benefits or Social Security.

Davis found that higher tax rates on salaries and on household spending can lead to less work time, more time spent on unpaid work at home and on leisure, a larger untaxed underground economy, a smaller national output, and less employment in industries that rely heavily on low wages and low skilled labor.

Davis's findings suggests that differences in the tax rates among major developed economies are a primary reason for large international differences in working hours and in types of available jobs.