The key question in multi-dimensional screening problems is how prices, incentives, or marginal tax rates in one economic activity should vary with other activities. We develop a theory of tax reforms in a setting with multidimensional heterogeneity amongst agents who take two economic...

The key question in multi-dimensional screening problems is how prices, incentives, or marginal tax rates in one economic activity should vary with other activities. We develop a theory of tax reforms in a setting with multidimensional heterogeneity amongst agents who take two economic...

How do corporate tax systems shape the boundaries of the firm? This paper shows that nonlinear corporate income taxation can distort firms' organizational structures by inducing tax-motivated firm splitting. I use administrative data on corporations and their owners and exploit two reforms that...

Unpaid domestic work continues to fall largely on women, despite their growing presence in the workforce. This paper asks whether policies changing the relative bargaining position of spouses can disrupt this pattern. I use the introduction of a bachelor tax in fascist Italy to show that...

This paper evaluates the redistributive and labour supply effects of transitioning from a joint to a fully individualised income tax system in Ireland. The current Irish tax system, which remains partially joint since the early 2000's, provides a financial advantage to married couples by...

Joint taxation of married couples represents a puzzle for welfare economics. We investigate whether political economy forces can explain its persistence. We develop sufficient statistics to determine whether a reform towards individual taxation would garner majority support and apply this...

An often neglected implication of couple taxation is its impact on marital sorting. A tractable model of such an impact is offered in this paper. It reveals that, as compared to joint taxation with income splitting, individual taxation makes higher-ability individuals more picky in the marriage...

Eine Individualbesteuerung von Ehepartnern könnte die Erwerbstätigkeit in Deutschland um 500.000 zusätzliche Jobs erhöhen und dem Fachkräftemangel entgegenwirken. Doch der steuerliche Umstieg brächte finanzielle Belastungen für Ehepaare und junge Familien mit sich, wenn steuerliche...

Eine Individualbesteuerung von Ehepartnern könnte die Erwerbstätigkeit in Deutschland um 500.000 zusätzliche Jobs erhöhen und dem Fachkräftemangel entgegenwirken. Doch der steuerliche Umstieg brächte finanzielle Belastungen für Ehepaare und junge Familien mit sich, wenn steuerliche...

In a dual income tax (DIT) system, labor income is taxed progressively, while capital income is subject to a lower proportional tax. DIT systems were introduced in Sweden, Norway, and Finland in the early 1990s. In the absence of rules restricting capital income distributions, owners of...

This paper studies the impact of tax incentives on economic behavior within the household. We focus on an Italian tax policy that grants a large tax credit to main earners if their spouses, designated as “dependent spouses” by the tax law, report income below a certain threshold. Combining a...

We develop a theory of tax reforms for a setting with multi-dimensional heterogeneity amongst taxpayers and multiple economic decisions that are all subject to fixed and variable costs. The theorems in this paper provide a complete characterization of the conditions under which Pareto- or...

In a dual income tax (DIT) system, labor income is taxed progressively, while capital income is subject to a lower proportional tax. DIT systems were introduced in Sweden, Norway, and Finland in the early 1990s. In the absence of rules restricting capital income distributions, owners of...

We develop a theory of tax reforms for a setting with multi-dimensional heterogeneity amongst taxpayers and multiple economic decisions that are all subject to fixed and variable costs. The theorems in this paper provide a complete characterization of the conditions under which Pareto- or...

In this paper, we examine reforms that alleviate large employment disincentives induced by child-related transfers for married mothers. We develop a life-cycle model where married couples face labor market, child care and fertility risk, and make joint labor supply and consumption-saving...

We develop a theory of tax reforms for a setting with multi-dimensional heterogeneity amongst taxpayers and multiple economic decisions that are all subject to fixed and variable costs. The theorems in this paper provide a complete characterization of the conditions under which Pareto- or...

Germany is characterised by large gender gaps in the labour market. Both the gender pay gap as well as the gender gap in working hours are among the highest in Europe. Family policy reforms such as increasing the parental leave period that is ear-marked for fathers as well as reducing the high...

Es wird eine Reform der Ehegattenbesteuerung vorgeschlagen, die darauf abzielt, dienegativen Arbeitsanreize beim Zweitverdiener zu reduzieren. Zu diesem Zweck soll dasEhegattensplitting durch eine Individualbesteuerung ersetzt werden, allerdings nur in demMaße, in dem rechtliche...

In dieser Expertise für den Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung werden Reformen im Steuer- und Transfersystem untersucht, die darauf abzielen, die Erwerbsanreize zu stärken. Es handelt sich hierbei um Reformen in der Grundsicherung und bei der...

We examine the impact of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) on fertility and parental investment in children. The CDCTC aims to support working parents but its availability only to families with children incentivizing having more children or increasing investment in existing ones....

The earned income tax credit provides important benefits to low-income families with children. At substantial costs (over $70 billion to the US federal government), it increases the incomes of such families while encouraging parents to work more by subsidizing their incomes. But low-income...

This paper studies the tax treatment of couples. We develop two different approaches. One is tailored to the analysis of tax systems that stick to the principle that the tax base for couples is the sum of their incomes. One is tailored to the analysis of reforms toward individual taxation. We...

This paper studies the tax treatment of couples. We develop two different ap-proaches. One is tailored to the analysis of tax systems that stick to the principle that the tax base for couples is the sum of their incomes. One is tailored to the analysis of reforms toward individual taxation. We...

This paper evaluates two hypothetical budget-neutral reforms that shift resources from family tax expenditures to family cash transfers. We evaluate these reforms using a structural labor supply model based on the microsimulation EUROMOD model and EUSILC data. We find that both reforms have an...

Married couples filing a joint return put the male name first 88.1% of the time in tax year 2020, down from 97.3% in 1996. The man's name is more likely to go first the larger is the fraction of the couple's allocable income that goes to him, and the older is the couple. Based on state averages,...

Are reforms towards individual taxation politically feasible? Are they desirable from a welfare perspective? We develop a method to answer such questions and apply it to the US federal income tax since the 1960s. Main findings are: As of today, Pareto-improvements require a move away from joint...

In dieser Expertise für den Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung werden Reformen im Steuer- und Transfersystem untersucht, die darauf abzielen, die Erwerbsanreize zu stärken. Es handelt sich hierbei um Reformen in der Grundsicherung und bei der...

This paper evaluates two hypothetical budget-neutral reforms that shift resources from family tax expenditures to family cash transfers. We evaluate these reforms using a structural labor supply model based on the microsimulation EUROMOD model and EU-SILC data. We find that both reforms have an...

Es wird eine Reform der Ehegattenbesteuerung vorgeschlagen, die darauf abzielt, dienegativen Arbeitsanreize beim Zweitverdiener zu reduzieren. Zu diesem Zweck soll dasEhegattensplitting durch eine Individualbesteuerung ersetzt werden, allerdings nur in demMaße, in dem rechtliche...