Document de travail

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

Helmuth Cremer et Kerstin Roeder

Résumé

We study the taxation of couples when female wages do not re?ect 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 re?ect 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?tradeo¤ 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.

Mots-clés

Couples'income taxation; gender wage gap; optimal income taxation; household labor supply;

Codes JEL

  • D10: General
  • H21: Efficiency • Optimal Taxation
  • H31: Household
  • J16: Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
  • J22: Time Allocation and Labor Supply

Remplacé par

Helmuth Cremer et Kerstin Roeder, « Income taxation of couples, spouses' labor supplies and the gender wage gap », Economics Letters, vol. 175, février 2019, p. 71–75.

Référence

Helmuth Cremer et Kerstin Roeder, « Income taxation of couples, spouses' labor supplies and the gender wage gap », TSE Working Paper, n° 18-951, septembre 2018.

Voir aussi

Publié dans

TSE Working Paper, n° 18-951, septembre 2018