During the early 1990s the Nordic countries undertook a series of sweeping tax reforms. These reforms combined ambitious base-broadening measures with the introduction of the so-called dual income tax which systematically separates the taxation of labour income from the taxation of capital...

People in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden work more than the countries’ high tax rates would lead us to predict. This observation is explained by a shared belief system that emphasises women’s rights to labour market participation.

This paper analyses government instruments in terms of reducing market inequality. Government redistribution, realized through public spending and taxation, could be considered as a key element in order to ensure a more equal distribution of income between households. The first part of the paper...