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Taxation, Aggregates and the Household

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  • Guner, Nezih
  • Ventura, Gustavo
  • Kaygusuz, Remzi

Abstract

We evaluate reforms to the U.S. tax system in a dynamic setup with heterogeneous married and single households, and with an operative extensive margin in labour supply. We restrict our model with observations on gender and skill premia, labour force participation of married females across skill groups, and the structure of marital sorting. We study four revenue-neutral tax reforms: a proportional consumption tax, a proportional income tax, a progressive consumption tax, and a reform in which married individuals file taxes separately. Our findings indicate that tax reforms are accompanied by large and differential effects on labour supply: while hours per-worker display small increases, total hours and female labour force participation increase substantially. Married females account for more than 50% of the changes in hours associated to reforms, and their importance increases sharply for values of the intertemporal labour supply elasticity on the low side of empirical estimates. Tax reforms in a standard version of the model result in output gains that are up to 15% lower than in our benchmark economy.

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  • Guner, Nezih & Ventura, Gustavo & Kaygusuz, Remzi, 2008. "Taxation, Aggregates and the Household," CEPR Discussion Papers 6702, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6702
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    Cited by:

    1. Axel Börsch-Supan & Alexander Ludwig, 2010. "Old Europe Ages: Reforms and Reform Backlashes," NBER Chapters, in: Demography and the Economy, pages 169-204, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner, 2014. "From Shame To Game In One Hundred Years: An Economic Model Of The Rise In Premarital Sex And Its De-Stigmatization," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 25-61, February.
    3. Kaygusuz, Remzi, 2015. "Social security and two-earner households," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 163-178.
    4. Guler, Bulent & Guvenen, Fatih & Violante, Giovanni L., 2012. "Joint-search theory: New opportunities and new frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 352-369.
    5. Jose Mustre-del-Rio, 2011. "The aggregate implications of individual labor supply heterogeneity," Research Working Paper RWP 11-09, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    6. Erosa, Andrés & Fuster, Luisa & Kambourov, Gueorgui, 2012. "Labor supply and government programs: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 84-107.
    7. Javier Díaz-Giménez & Josep Pijoan-Mas, 2011. "Flat Tax Reforms: Investment Expensing and Progressivity," Working Papers wp2011_1101, CEMFI.
    8. Juergen Jung & Chung Tran, 2016. "Market Inefficiency, Insurance Mandate and Welfare: U.S. Health Care Reform 2010," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 20, pages 132-159, April.
    9. Nezih Guner & John Knowles, 2009. "Why is the rate of single-parenthood lower in Canada than in the U.S.? A dynamic equilibrium analysis of welfare policies," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 42(1), pages 56-89, February.
    10. Börsch-Supan Axel & Ludwig Alexander, 2009. "Living Standards in an Aging Germany: The Benefits of Reforms and the Costs of Resistance," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(2-3), pages 163-179, April.
    11. Juergen Jung & Chung Tran, 2008. "The Macroeconomics of Health Savings Accounts," CAEPR Working Papers 2007-023, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.
    12. Nawid Siassi, 2019. "Inequality and the Marriage Gap," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 160-181, January.
    13. Bar Michael & Leukhina Oksana, 2009. "To Work or Not to Work: Did Tax Reforms Affect Labor Force Participation of Married Couples?," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, July.
    14. Marina Mendes, 2013. "Taxes, education,marriage and labor supply," Working Papers 1303, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    15. Hans Peter Grüner, 2009. "Kapitalbeteiligung von Mitarbeitern. Eine Bewertung der jüngsten Vorschläge," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(2), pages 175-188, May.
    16. Gonzalo Castex, 2010. "Accounting for Changes in College Attendance Profile: a Quantitative Life-Cycle Analysis," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 598, Central Bank of Chile.
    17. Georgi Kocharkov, 2010. "Abortions, Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility: A Quantitative Evaluation," 2010 Meeting Papers 974, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Marina Mendes, 2013. "A Cross-Country Comparison of the Impact of Labor Income Tax on Female Labor Supply," Working Papers 1302, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour force participation; Taxation; Two-earner households;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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