On the Optimality of Joint Taxation for Non- Cooperative Couples
نویسندگان
چکیده
We present a non-cooperative model of a family’s time allocation between work and a home-produced public good, and examine whether the income tax should apply to couples or individuals. While tax-induced labor supply distortions lead to overprovision of the public good, spouses’ failure to internalize the collective effect of their choices points towards underprovision. A large parameter range exists for which a move from individual to joint taxation improves the welfare of both spouses. The source of Pareto-improvement consists in moving the level of the public good closer to its first-best, while an adjustement of intra-family transfers compensates the secondary earner for the increased tax load. JEL classification: D13, D62, H23, H24, J22.
منابع مشابه
Optimal income taxation of married couples: an empirical analysis of joint and individual taxation
Optimal Income Taxation of Married Couples: An Empirical Analysis of Joint and Individual Taxation In this paper we develop a discrete model of optimal taxation of married couples and empirically discuss the optimality of income taxation for this group. To this end, we derive the social welfare function which guarantees that joint taxation of married couples is optimal. We will contrast this we...
متن کاملIncome taxation of couples and the tax unit choice
This paper studies the optimal non linear income tax of couples. We build a general unitary model of labor supply and allow multidimensional heterogeneity in a discrete type framework. We concentrate our analysis on the resulting intra-family labor allocation of labor supplies and show that this analysis is strongly related to the choice of the tax unit (individual versus joint taxation). We gi...
متن کاملThe effects of joint taxation of married couples on labor supply and non-wage income
The United States changed its tax treatment of married couples in 1948, from a system in which each spouse paid taxes on his or her own income to a system in which a married couple is taxed as a unit. The switch from separate to joint taxation changed incentives for labor supply and asset ownership. This paper investigates the effects of the conversion to joint taxation, taking advantage of a n...
متن کاملOptimal Government Spending and Taxation in Three-Sector Endogenous Growth Model-Case Iran
The recent literature on taxation and growth has stressed the optimality of a zero long-run taxation on all accumulative factors of production. For a given path of government spending, the optimal tax plan requires the government to build up a positive stock of public wealth in the short run in the long-run, government spending can be financed with the income accruing from the management of the...
متن کاملPigou Meets Ramsey: Gender-Based Taxation with Non-Cooperative Couples
This paper explores the implications of gender-based income taxation in a noncooperative model of household behavior. In a first step, we show how gender-based taxes can act as Pigou taxes and correct the externality induced by a non-cooperative household equilibrium. We find that the first-best Pigou tax rules are solely determined by spouses’ relative marginal rates of substitution between th...
متن کامل