Incentives for Women to Work: A Comparison between The Netherlands, Sweden and West Germany
In: Journal of economic studies, Band 18, Heft 5/6
ISSN: 1758-7387
Compares the way women are taxed in the Germany, Sweden and The
Netherlands by looking at both macro and micro data from the perspective
of a wife′s contribution to family income. The programs used for
analysis are included in an appendix. Taxing husbands and wives by
adding joint incomes and dividing by two (as in Germany) penalises
dual‐earner couples and favours one‐earner couples. Completely separate
taxation (as in Sweden) is a major incentive for couples to be
dual‐earner. In The Netherlands the government reform of the tax system
(1990) has reduced negative tax effects on secondary earnings without
introducing the positive effects seen in Sweden. Tax incentives are not
the only determinant of women′s participation in the labour market.