The federal income tax system treats married couples as if each spouse earned approximately one-half of the couple's combined income through a mechanism called income splitting. For many one-earner and unequal-earner couples, income splitting produces a significant advantage, a marriage bonus,...

Parents who undertake paid work are obliged to spend time away from their children, and to use nonparental. This has given rise to concern that children are missing out on parental attention. However, time-use studies have consistently shown that parents who are in paid employment do not reduce...

Recent literature makes a distinction between quot;voluntaryquot; and quot;involuntaryquot; early retirement, where quot;involuntaryquot; early retirement results from employment constraints rather than from a preference for leisure relative to work. This paper analyzes quot;voluntaryquot; and...

Americans work more than Europeans. Using micro data from the United States and 17 European countries, we document that women are typically the largest contributors to the cross-country differences in work hours. We also show that there is a negative relation between taxes and annual hours...

Masculinities theory explains that masculinity is constructed in relation to a dominant image of gender difference, ultimately defining itself simply as what quot;femininityquot; is not. In the workplace, masculinities comprise both a structure that reinforces the superiority of men over women,...

Using local variation between municipalities I analyse the degree to which availability and price of high quality publicly subsidised child care affect female employment following maternity leave. Importantly, prices are income dependent and thus likely endogenous, yet by exploiting information...

As mothers have increased their paid work efforts, conflicts between employment and family responsibilities have grown. This evolution has led researchers to explore more fully the role that caregiving responsibilities play in mothers' time choices. We study this issue using data from the 2003...

If married women view participation in the labor force as providing insurance against the negative economic consequences of divorce, then married women with higher expectations of divorce will be more likely to be employed. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1968-1983, is used to estimate the...

Since its inception, the traditional form of providing survivor benefits within public pension schemes has lost much of its legitimacy. As a result of fundamental changes in marriage behaviour and the typical division of labour between married spouses, offering noncontributory benefits of this...

This paper develops a model to investigate the welfare implications of barter in Russia and other transition economies during the 1990s. We argue that barter is a welfare-improving phenomenon that acts as a defense mechanism against monetary instability. When firms react to tighter credit...