Income taxation of couples, spouses’ labor supplies and the gender wage gap

C-Tier
Journal: Economics Letters
Year: 2019
Volume: 175
Issue: C
Pages: 71-75

Authors (2)

Cremer, Helmuth (not in RePEc) Roeder, Kerstin (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We study the taxation of couples when female wages do not reflect their true productivity. We show that the expression for the marginal tax rates of the male spouses is the same as in a Mirrleesian world where wages reflect true productivities. Marginal taxes for the female spouses are reduced because of a Pigouvian correction. Consequently, the wage discrimination pleads for a lower marginal tax on the female spouse. Furthermore, the distortion of a couples’ tradeoff between male and female labor supply is the same as in a Mirrleesian world without a gender wage gap. It only depends on true productivities and not on wages. In other words, the tax system completely neutralizes the extra distortion introduced by the wedge between the female spouse’s wage and her true productivity.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:ecolet:v:175:y:2019:i:c:p:71-75
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25