Is the Full-Time Housewife a Symbol of a Wealthy Family?

Miki Kohara

Japanese Economy, 2007, vol. 34, issue 4, 25-56

Abstract: Do wives with high-earning husbands tend to choose to be full-time housewives? Are the households in which both spouses earn high incomes increasing? This article answers these questions. It also shows what kinds of impacts such changes in household income composition are having on income inequality among all households, and discusses the effects of the tax system. The analysis shows, at least with regard to younger households, that (1) high husband incomes have only a weak effect on restraining their wives' employment, and (2) the number of households in which both spouses earn high incomes is increasing. These changes in household income composition have contributed about 5 percent of the growth in overall inequality among households. The existence of the spousal deduction constrains the employment of wives with high-earning husbands, but its effects on equalizing overall household incomes is declining.

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2753/JES1097-203X340402 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mes:jpneco:v:34:y:2007:i:4:p:25-56

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/MJES19

DOI: 10.2753/JES1097-203X340402

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Japanese Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().