Household chores, taxes, and the labor-supply elasticities of women and men

Dorothée Bahn, Christian Bredemeier and Falko Juessen

No 1177, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: We study how the division of household chores and individual preferences contribute to gender differences in labor supply elasticities and examine the implications for optimal taxation. In a model of labor supply in dual-earner households, we show that elasticities and optimal income tax rates depend jointly on gender and the within-household allocation of chores. Using PSID data, we find that chore division substantially affects labor supply elasticities, whereas gender per se plays a smaller role. We then evaluate how well simple, feasible tax rules can approximate the optimal within-household tax structure. Gender-based taxation captures a sizable share of the potential efficiency gains, but gender-neutral rules with realistic levels of progressivity perform better.

Keywords: Elasticity of labor supply; taxation; household chores; gender-based taxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J42 J62 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-gen, nep-lab and nep-pbe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:330181

DOI: 10.4419/96973362

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