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Comparative Advantage, Observability, and the Optimal Tax Treatment of Families with Children

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  • Alessandro Cigno

Abstract

Children are special, not only to their own parents, but also for society at large. Even if society is not directly interested in children, intervention may still be justified for re-distributive reasons. The fact that children are not transferable, while income is, does in fact bias the first best in favour of households with a comparative advantage in raising children. Furthermore, visibility makes children a natural target of second-best policies (but it does not necessarily follow that family size should be subsidized, at least directly). If society is directly interested in children, maybe only because of an externality, that is an additional reason for interfering with parental decisions. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001

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  • Alessandro Cigno, 2001. "Comparative Advantage, Observability, and the Optimal Tax Treatment of Families with Children," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(4), pages 455-470, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:8:y:2001:i:4:p:455-470
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1011275109138
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    1. Cigno, Alessandro & Rosati, Furio C. & Guarcello, Lorenzo, 2002. "Does Globalization Increase Child Labor?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1579-1589, September.
    2. Blumkin, Tomer & Margalioth, Yoram & Sadka, Efraim, 2010. "Taxing Children: The Re-distributive Role of Child Benefits - Revisited," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275758, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Kristin Dale, 2009. "Household skills and low wages," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 1025-1038, October.
    4. Apps, Patricia & Rees, Ray, 2001. "Fertility, Female Labor Supply and Public Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 409, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Volker Meier & Matthias Wrede, 2013. "Reducing the excess burden of subsidizing the stork: joint taxation, individual taxation, and family tax splitting," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 1195-1207, July.
    6. Cigno, Alessandro & Luporini, Annalisa & Pettini, Anna, 2003. "Transfers to families with children as a principal-agent problem," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(5-6), pages 1165-1177, May.
    7. Tomer Blumkin & Yoram Margalioth & Efraim Sadka, 2015. "The Re-distributive Role of Child Benefits Revisited," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(3), pages 476-501, June.
    8. Tomer Blumkin & Yoram Margalioth & Efraim Sadka, 2010. "Taxing Children: The Re-distributive Role of Child Benefits - Revisited," CESifo Working Paper Series 2970, CESifo.
    9. Thomas I. Renström & Luca Spataro, 2021. "Optimal taxation in an endogenous growth model with variable population and public expenditure," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(4), pages 639-659, August.
    10. Takuya Obara & Yoshitomo Ogawa, 2020. "Optimal Taxation in an Endogenous Fertility Model with Non-Cooperative Couples," Discussion Paper Series 211, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Jan 2021.
    11. Ross Guest & Nick Parr, 2013. "Family policy and couples’ labour supply: an empirical assessment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1631-1660, October.
    12. Alessandro Balestrino & Alessandro Cigno & Anna Pettini, 2003. "Doing Wonders with an Egg: Optimal Re‐distribution When Households Differ in Market and Non‐Market Abilities," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 5(3), pages 479-498, July.

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