Patricia Apps

Taxation and the household

Previous analyses of demand systems and the welfare effects of taxing male and female labour supplies suppress the analysis of household resource allocation by assuming a household utility function. To analyse the implications of assuming this is not the case, we construct a simple but fairly general model of household resource allocation and use the properties of the equilibrium of this model to characterise the effects of tax policy on individual utilities, as determined by the household resource allocation process

Labour Supply, Household Production and Intra-Family Welfare Distribution

Abstract This paper demonstrates the importance, in conceptual and empirical terms, of incorporating household production in models of labour supply to avoid misleading results concerning the intra-family distribution of income and behavioural responses to economic policy.

On the taxation of trade within and between households

Tax reform proposals affect individual welfares in ways which strongly depend on the nature of specialisation in household production and the pattern of trade within households. Variation in the degree of specialisation in domestic production across households strongly influences the impacts on individula tax burdens of a given tax reform. The standard models of the economics literature cannot beused to abalyse these issues because they ignore the two-person nature of households and the existence of household production and trade.

Gender, Time Use and Models of the Household

The aim of this paper is to explain why time use data are essential for analyzing issues of gender equity and the intra-household allocation of resources, comparing living standards, and estimating the behavioral effects of changes in policy variables. The first step in the exposition is to show that the neglect of these data in much of the literature on household behavior, in both developed and developing economies, can be traced to unrealistic assumptions on domestic production and the mistaken idea that non-market time can be viewed as leisure. It is argued that an approach is required that makes explicit the need for data on the time family members spend on domestic work as well as on labor supply. An approach of this kind is outlined and used to identify the specialized assumptions that are employed when they are missing. The paper also discusses the limitations of available time use survey datasets that are due to deficiencies in survey design. The more serious and common problems are illustrated using as case studies the Statistics South Africa 2000 Time Use Survey and the time use module included in the Nicaraguan 1998 Living Standards Measurements Survey.

Labour supply, welfare rankings and the measurement of inequality

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of inequality using utility-based measures of welfare derived from different approaches to modelling household labour supplies. The almost Ideal Demand System specification of preferences is selected for the estimation of a neoclassical household model and of individual decision models which incorporate different assumptions concerning the intra-household distribution of income using the Rosen (1976) tax perception methodology. The study also explores the implications of a model which does not constrain time at home to leisure. Welfare rankings and inequality measures defined on equivalent income are compared for each type of model. The analysis uses Australian unit record data on 3,352 households drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1981-82 Income and Housing Sample Survey file. The results indicate the sensitivity of welfare orderings and inequality measures to the choice of decision model and to the specification of lump-sum transfers between family members. A comparative study of equivalent incomes and selected money income variables also illustrates the limitations of observed household and individual incomes as welfare indicators for the analysis of inequality and for policy design.

Institutional inequality and tax incidence

Abstract This paper analyses the effects of taxation when inequality is not innate. A theory of institutional inequality is presented which employs a trade model with circular production and the theory of clubs. Inequality is introduced by constraints on entry into sectors and ‘local’ groups within sectors. Individual time is treated as a fixed factor of production, and work and leisure are re-defined. The analysis suggests that when inequality is institutional and government policy does not alter the mechanisms by which institutions translate the distribution of power into the distribution of income, a redistribution of income by conventional tax-transfer schemes may not always be feasible.

Public Economics and the Household: List of figures

Economic models in much of the public economics literature have been slow to reflect the significant changes towards double-income households throughout the developed world. This graduate-level text develops a more sophisticated approach to household economics, one that allows for multiple-income earners and shared decision-making. This approach is used to present a fundamentally new view of consumption. It is then applied to an analysis of tax systems, combining theoretical analysis of optimal taxation and tax reform with a careful empirical study of the characteristics of income tax systems in four different countries: Australia, Germany, the UK and the USA. The book is particularly concerned with analysing, both theoretically and empirically, the impact of taxation on female labour supply, and identifying its effects on work incentives and fairness of income distribution. All this adds up to a fascinating new approach to the economics of households for researchers in both the public and private sectors.

Public Economics and the Household: Frontmatter

Economic models in much of the public economics literature have been slow to reflect the significant changes towards double-income households throughout the developed world. This graduate-level text develops a more sophisticated approach to household economics, one that allows for multiple-income earners and shared decision-making. This approach is used to present a fundamentally new view of consumption. It is then applied to an analysis of tax systems, combining theoretical analysis of optimal taxation and tax reform with a careful empirical study of the characteristics of income tax systems in four different countries: Australia, Germany, the UK and the USA. The book is particularly concerned with analysing, both theoretically and empirically, the impact of taxation on female labour supply, and identifying its effects on work incentives and fairness of income distribution. All this adds up to a fascinating new approach to the economics of households for researchers in both the public and private sectors.

Household Models: An Historical Perspective

This paper is a survey of the literature on theoretical models of the household, paying particular attention to some of the earlier contributions, and using them to place the current state of the theory in perspective. One of its aims is to suggest that the literature’s neglect of Samuelson’s proposal, that households can be modelled as if they maximised a form of social welfare function, was a mistake. However, the idea following directly from the Nash bargaining models, that the household’s preference ordering over the utility profiles of its members depends on exogenous variables, in particular wage rates and non-wage incomes, is an important one. Combined with Samuelson’s proposal, it can be made the basis for a general approach to modelling household decision taking, flexible enough to encompass non-cooperative behaviour and Pareto inefficiencies arising out of the inevitable incompleteness and unenforceability of domestic agreements. We also point out the importance of household production and some of the implications of its neglect in modelling households. Above all, the aim is to provide a deeper understanding of the current theoretical literature on household economics by means of a survey of its history.

Tax Reform, Population Ageing and the Changing Labour Supply Behaviour of Married Women

The burden of financing retirement incomes in an ageing population is predicted to rise sharply in future decades. This paper investigates the effects of reforms to the Australian tax-benefit system involving a greater reliance on proportional taxation for raising revenue and a more targeted welfare system for cutting government expenditure, in order to reduce expected budget deficits. Estimates of changes in net incomes and hours of work suggest that reforms of this kind shift the tax burden to lower and middle income households with a second earner and that they can have counter-productive labour supply effects. The study explores the impact of projected increases in female work force participation and illustrates the importance of shifts in the labour supply of married women in predicting the fiscal effects of demographic change.