Married couples often face a different tax burden than cohabitating couples with the same income. I study the effect of joint income taxation of married couples on the marriage rate in Switzerland, where tax differentials between married and cohabitating couples vary considerably across cantons....

This paper studies the impact of tax incentives on economic behavior within the household. We focus on an Italian tax policy that grants a large tax credit to main earners if their spouses, designated as “dependent spouses” by the tax law, report income below a certain threshold. Combining a...

Mit der von der Bundesregierung in Auftrag gegebenen »Gesamtevaluation ehe- und familienbezogener Leistungen« wurden erstmals zentrale Instrumente der deutschen Familienpolitik systematisch und umfassend evaluiert. Dabei wurden folgende familienpolitische Ziele vorgegeben: die Sicherung der...

This paper applies the theory of relational contracts to make precise the idea that because households are engaged in a repeated non-cooperative game, Pareto efficient outcomes can be supported by self interest, given the specific pattern of specialisation and exchange which exists in the...

Many government programs have implicit penalties or subsidies for marriage. For example, many couples pay higher income taxes when married than their combined tax liabilities as single filers, while many other couples receive a marriage subsidy because their joint taxes fall with marriage....

In this paper, I adopt a dynamic structural approach to study the design of consumption and personal income taxes and their interactions. I develop a life-cycle model of household consumption, saving and employment choices with multiple non-durable goods - necessities and luxuries - and...

Based on two Romanian household surveys, we analyse the structure of households’ income by sources: main job, secondary job, and hidden activities. After conceptual clarification and explanation of the methodology we used, we estimate the size of informal economy, analyse the relationship...

Economists have already established a relationship between tax rates and size of the hidden economy. The higher the level of taxation is, the greater the incentive to participate in hidden activity and escape taxes is. On the one hand, coming from generally accepted findings of the theory, we...

Based on two Romanian household surveys, we analyse the structure of households’ income by sources: main job, secondary job, and hidden activities. After conceptual clarification and explanation of the methodology we used, we estimate the size of informal economy, analyse the relationship...

The paper aims to model the underground economy using two different models: one based on the labor supply method and a generalized model for the allocation of time. The model based on the labor supply method is conceived as a simulating one in order to determine some reasonable thresholds of the...