The Labour Supply of Lone Mothers in Denmark and the United Kingdom

Nina Smith, Ian Walker and Niels Westergård-Nielsen
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Ian Walker: Keele University
Niels Westergård-Nielsen: Centre for Labour Market and Social Research

Chapter 14 in Economics in a Changing World, 1996, pp 331-355 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In most countries income support is targeted on low-income households by ‘means testing’ welfare payments. The result is that many low-income households face a situation where an increase in gross income generates little, if any, increase in net income. Their incomes are ‘taxed’ at the margin at a very high rate while their average tax rate is low, or even negative. Since households headed by lone parents constitute a large proportion of low-income households, this group is particularly interesting for investigating the potential adverse work incentives that the welfare system can produce. In the USA, lone parenthood is thought to be the major determinant of poverty ( see Knieser, McElroy and Wilcox, 1988) while in the UK lone parents have, over recent years, become an increasingly important client group for income-support schemes (see Ermisch and Wright, 1989a).

Keywords: Labour Supply; Disposable Income; Income Support; Labour Force Status; Lone Mother (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-25168-1_14

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-25168-1_14

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