Why Are Mothers Working Longer Hours in Austria than in Germany?: A Comparative Micro Simulation Analysis

Helene Dearing, Helmut Hofer, Christine Lietz, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer and Katharina Wrohlich

No 695, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Labor force participation rates of mothers in Austria and Germany are similar, however full-time employment rates are much higher among Austrian mothers. In order to find out to what extent these differences can be attributed to differences in the tax transfersystem, we perform a comparative micro simulation exercise. After estimating structural labor supply models of both countries, we interchange two important institutional characteristics of the two countries, namely (i) the definition of the tax unit within the personal income tax and (ii) the parental leave benefit scheme. As our analysis shows, differences in mothers' employment patterns can partly be explained by the different tax systems: While Germany has a system of joint taxation with income splitting for married couples, Austria taxes everyone individually, which leads to lower marginal tax rates for secondary earners than the German system.

Keywords: Labor supply; micro simulation; family policy; income taxation; Austria; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H24 H31 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 p.
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-ltv and nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.57402.de/dp695.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Why Are Mothers Working Longer Hours in Austria than in Germany? A Comparative Microsimulation Analysis* (2007)
Working Paper: Why are Mothers Working Longer Hours in Austria than in Germany? A Comparative Micro Simulation Analysis (2007)
Working Paper: Why Are Mothers Working Longer Hours in Austria than in Germany? A Comparative Micro Simulation Analysis (2007)
Working Paper: Why are mothers working longer hours in Austria than in Germany? A comparative micro simulation analysis (2007)
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