This paper contributes to the debate about the optimal design of tax-transfer systems. Basedon the theory of optimal taxation, combined with microsimulation and microeconometrictechniques we derive the welfare function which makes the current German tax and transfersystem for single women optimal...

The UK´s Equal Opportunities Commission has recently drawn attention to the hidden braindrain when women working part-time are employed in occupations below those for whichthey are qualified. These inferences were based on self-reporting...

Two particular features of the position of women in the British labour market are theextensive role of part-time work and the large part-time pay penalty. Part-time work featuresmost prominently when women are in their 30s, the peak childcare years and, particularly formore educated women, a...

This paper uses British panel data to investigate single women´s labour supply changes inresponse to three tax and benefit policy reforms that occurred in the 1990s. These reformschanged individuals´ work incentives and we use them to identify changes in labour supply.We find evidence of small...

This paper examines the effects of the Working Families´ Tax Credit (WFTC) on couples inBritain. We develop a simple model of household decisions which explicitly accounts for therole played by the tax and benefit system. Its main implications are then tested using paneldata from the British...

In this paper we develop a model to consistently estimate the intertemporal labor supplybehavior on the extensive margin (participation decision) and the intensive margin (workinghours decision). In this framework we distinguish between voluntary non-participation andinvoluntary unemployment...

Applying data from 13 waves of the Swiss Labor Force Survey (1991-2003) I assess costs andbenefits of fixed-term contracts. First, I analyze the existence of a contract related wage gapand the effort response of temporary employees in terms of unpaid overtime hours. Second, Iinvestigate whether...

In this paper we use a dynamic structural life-cycle model to analyze the employment,fiscal and welfare effects induced by unemployment insurance. The model features a detailedspecification of the tax and transfer system, including unemployment insurance benefitswhich depend on an individual's...

Almost half the women in work in the UK work part-time, but views conflict: does this support awoman’s career or is it a dead-end trap?Cohort data on labour market involvement to age 42 show highly varied pathways throughfull/part-time/non-employment. Econometric estimation confirms that...

This paper extends the cross sectionally augmented panel unit root test proposed byPesaran (2007) to the case of a multifactor error structure. The basic idea is to exploitinformation regarding the unobserved factors that are shared by other time series in additionto the variable under...