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Joint Labour Supply of Married Couples: Efficiency and Distribution Effects of Tax and Labour Market Reforms

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Author Info
Rolf Aaberge (Research Department, Statistics Norway, Oslo, Norway)
Ugo Colombino (Department of Economics, University of Turin, Italy)
Steinar Strøm (Department of Economics, University of Oslo, Norway)
Tom Wennemo (Research Department, Statistics Norway, Oslo, Norway)

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Abstract

The paper presents a model of household labour supply that allows for simultaneous decisions of household members, complex and non-convex choice sets induced by tax and benefit rules, and quantity constraints on hours choice. The model is estimated using the 1993 Bank of Italy’s Survey of Household Income and Wealth, and used to simulate three hypothetical tax reforms: namely, a flat tax and two versions of a negative income tax system, under the constraint of equal tax revenue. All the reforms produce a larger household average disposable income, without worsening much the equality of the income distribution, and are supported by a majority of winners in the sample, although the proportion of winners varies considerably across income deciles. We also simulate the impact on labour supply and income of removing the quantity constraints on hours-wage packages available on the market, constraints that in Italy typically make full-time jobs more easily available than other jobs. The results show a considerable increase in participation among women belonging to relatively poor households, and a slight reductions in hours worked – given participation – across all households.

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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Labor and Demography with number 0501004.

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Length: 24 pages
Date of creation: 07 Jan 2005
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0501004

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 24. PDF document
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Related research
Keywords: Tax reforms; Labour supply; Microeconometric models;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J - Labor and Demographic Economics

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Kapteyn, Arie & Kooreman, Peter & van Soest, Arthur, 1990. "Quantity Rationing and Concavity in a Flexible Household Labor Supply Model," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(1), pages 55-62, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Moffitt, Robert, 1984. "The Estimation of a Joint Wage-Hours Labor Supply Model," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 550-66, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Heckman, James J, 1974. "Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 679-94, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Hausman, Jerry A, 1985. "The Econometrics of Nonlinear Budget Sets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1255-82, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Fortin, Bernard & Truchon, Michel & Beausejour, Louis, 1993. "On reforming the welfare system : Workfare meets the negative income tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 119-151, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Dagsvik, John K, 1994. "Discrete and Continuous Choice, Max-Stable Processes, and Independence from Irrelevant Attributes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(5), pages 1179-1205, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Ham, John C, 1982. "Estimation of a Labour Supply Model with Censoring Due to Unemployment and Underemployment," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(3), pages 335-54, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Blomquist, N. Soren, 1983. "The effect of income taxation on the labor supply of married men in Sweden," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 169-197, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Aaberge, Rolf & Dagsvik, John K & Strom, Steinar, 1995. " Labor Supply Responses and Welfare Effects of Tax Reforms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 97(4), pages 635-59, December.
  10. Colombino, Ugo, 1998. "Evaluating the effects of new telephone tariffs on residential users' demand and welfare. A model for Italy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 283-303, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Hausman, Jerry & Ruud, Paul, 1984. "Family Labor Supply with Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 242-48, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Aaberge, Rolf & Colombino, Ugo & Strom, Steinar, 1999. "Labour Supply in Italy: An Empirical Analysis of Joint Household Decisions, with Taxes and Quantity Constraints," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 403-22, July-Aug.. [Downloadable!]
  13. Rolf Aaberge, Ugo Colombino and, 1998. "Social Evaluation of Individual Welfare Effects from Income Taxation Empirical Evidence Based on Italian Data for Married Couples," Discussion Papers 230, Research Department of Statistics Norway. [Downloadable!]
  14. Jerry A. Hausman & Paul Ruud, 1984. "Family Labor Supply With Taxes," NBER Working Papers 1271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Bourguignon, F. & O'Donoghue, C. & Sastre-Descals, J. & Spadaro, A. & Utili, F., 1997. "Eur 3: A Prototype European Tax-Benefit Model," DELTA Working Papers 97-30, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure).
    Other versions:
  16. Colombino, Ugo & Del Boca, Daniela, 1989. "The Effect Of Taxes On Labor Supply In Italy," Working Papers 89-30, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University. [Downloadable!]
  17. Arrufat, Jose Luis & Zabalza, Antonio, 1986. "Female Labor Supply with Taxation, Random Preferences, and Optimization Errors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(1), pages 47-63, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Dickens, William T & Lundberg, Shelly J, 1993. "Hours Restrictions and Labor Supply," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 34(1), pages 169-92, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  19. Ilmakunnas, Seija & Pudney, Stephen, 1990. "A model of female labour supply in the presence of hours restrictions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 183-210, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Aaberge, R. & Colombino, U. & Strom, S. & Wennemo, T., 1998. "Evaluating alternative tax reforms in Italy with a model of joint labor supply of married couples," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 415-433, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Macurdy, T. & Green, D. & Paarsch, H., 1990. "Assessing Empirical Approaches For Analyzing Taxes And Labor Supply," Papers e-90-11, Stanford - Hoover Institution.
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Rolf Aaberge and Ugo Colombino, 2006. "Designing Optimal Taxes with a Microeconometric Model of Household Labour Supply," Discussion Papers 475, Research Department of Statistics Norway. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Colombino U & Locatelli M & Narazani E & O'donoghue C & Shima I, 2008. "Behavioural And Welfare Effects Of Basic Income Policies: A Simulation For European Countries," EUROMOD Working Papers EM5/08, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Ugo Colombino & R. Aaberge & T. Wennemo, 2006. "Evaluating Alternative Representations of the Choice Sets in Models of Labour Supply," CHILD Working Papers wp17_06, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Aaberge, Rolf & Colombino, Ugo & Strøm, Steinar, 2003. "Do More Equal Slices Shrink the Cake? An Empirical Investigation of Tax-Transfer Reform Proposals in Italy," Memorandum 37/2003, Oslo University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Rolf Aaberge & Ugo Colombino, 2005. "A microeconometric model for analysing efficiency and distributional effects of tax reforms: a review of results for Italy and Norwayƒx," Public Economics 0501002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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