Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161127 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10504
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We document contemporaneous differences in the aggregate labor supply of married couples across 17 European countries and the US. Based on a model of joint household decision making, we quantify the contribution of international differences in non-linear labor income taxes and consumption taxes to the international differences in hours worked in the data. Through the lens of the model, taxes, together with wages and the educational composition, account for a significant part of the small differences in married men's and the large differences in married women's hours worked in the data. Taking the full nonlinearities of labor income tax codes, including the tax treatment of married couples, into account is crucial for generating the low cross-country correlation between married men's and women's hours worked in the data, and for explaining the variation of married women's hours worked across European countries.
Subjects: 
taxation
two-earner households
hours worked
JEL: 
E60
H20
H31
J12
J22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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