The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Kleven, Henrik Jacobsen; Kreiner, Claus Thustrup; Saez, Emmanuel
署名单位：
University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of Copenhagen; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research
刊物名称：
ECONOMETRICA
ISSN/ISSBN：
0012-9682
DOI：
10.3982/ECTA7343
发表日期：
2009
页码：
537-560
关键词：
摘要：
This paper analyzes the general nonlinear optimal income tax for couples, a multidimensional screening problem. Each couple consists of a primary earner who always participates in the labor market, but makes an hours-of-work choice, and a secondary earner who chooses whether or not to work. If second-earner participation is a signal of the couple being better (worse) off, we prove that optimal tax schemes display a positive tax (subsidy) on secondary earnings and that the tax (subsidy) on secondary earnings decreases with primary earnings and converges to zero asymptotically. We present calibrated microsimulations for the United Kingdom showing that decreasing tax rates on secondary earnings is quantitatively significant and consistent with actual income tax and transfer programs.
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