Public Economics and the Household

This graduate-level text develops a more sophisticated model of household economics that allows for multiple-income earners and shared decision-making.

Patricia Apps (Author), Ray Rees (Author)

9780521887878, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 March 2009

302 pages, 16 tables
25.3 x 18 x 1.9 cm, 0.76 kg

'This well-written book presents an enlightening survey of the literature and backs up the theoretical analysis with new and interesting empirical work. It is a strong demonstration of the power of microeconomic theory and public economics to illuminate important issues of public policy. Public economists and their graduate students will find much to inspire them in this book.' Agnar Sandmo, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH)

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 then applies this to an analysis of tax systems, combining theoretical analysis of optimal taxation and tax reform with 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 household for researchers in both public and private sectors.

1. Introduction and overview
2. Time allocation and household production
3. Household models: theory
4. Empirical household models
5. Labour supply, consumption and saving over the life cycle
6. Household taxation: introduction
7. Optimal linear and piecewise linear income taxation
8. Optimal non-linear taxation
9. Tax reform
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Microeconomics [KCC]