We document changes in female labor supply between 1983 and today in seven OECD countries. Based on micro data sets, we construct comparable measures of hours worked across time and space which incorporate both the extensive and intensive margins of female labor supply. We document trends in hours worked by gender, but also by marital status and the presence of children in the household. We then analyze whether differences in the tax treatment of married couples, especially between the two systems of joined and individual taxation, interacted with differences in the progressivity of taxation can explain the observed trends. To do this, we build a simple model of female labor supply that incorporates detailed tax codes of the respective countries. The model is calibrated to one country and time period, and its predictions over time and space are then compared to the data.
