Understanding Tax Progressivity as a Mechanism of Gender Difference in Tax Payment Patterns and Post-Tax Income
type: CreativeWork
description: Gender difference in taxation is generally understudied. However, existing scholarship, largely country case studies, suggests men pay higher tax rates where income tax progressivity is higher, due to their higher average income. Men’s higher rates should then increase gender equality in income post-tax. However, many rich countries reduced income tax progressivity starting in the 1980s-90s during “taxing for economic growth” reforms, including over half of the high income countries included in this study. These changes have previously unexplored implications for the extent to which the current (versus past) tax systems of rich countries reduce, leave unaffected, or compound gender disparities in pre-tax income. Further, some literature suggests that the use of less progressive taxation might be preferable to support more generous and stable social welfare systems (Steinmo 1993; Wilensky 2002; Kato 2003; Lindert, 2004). However, we know little about whether or not changes in transfers from potentially more generous or stable welfare states compensated for any gendered effects related to tax progressivity reductions. After situating this research within existing literature in this introductory chapter, I offer four empirical chapters designed to answer these questions about how progressive taxation, including changes in levels of tax progressivity over time, produce gender differences in tax payment patterns and post-tax income and whether the contribution of taxes and transfers to gender differences in income changed over time. Throughout, the primary data are the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) databases, including a mix of high and low income countries for Chapters 2-3, and narrowing to the high income countries mentioned in the literature on taxing for growth for Chapters 4-5, which examine change over time. Chapter 2 presents a conceptual framework for understanding gender difference in income tax payment patterns and how taxation adjusts for market-based gender d…
abstract: Gender difference in taxation is generally understudied. However, existing scholarship, largely country case studies, suggests men pay higher tax rates where income tax progressivity is higher, due to their higher average income. Men’s higher rates should then increase gender equality in income post-tax. However, many rich countries reduced income tax progressivity starting in the 1980s-90s during “taxing for economic growth” reforms, including over half of the high income countries included in this study. These changes have previously unexplored implications for the extent to which the current (versus past) tax systems of rich countries reduce, leave unaffected, or compound gender disparities in pre-tax income. Further, some literature suggests that the use of less progressive taxation might be preferable to support more generous and stable social welfare systems (Steinmo 1993; Wilensky 2002; Kato 2003; Lindert, 2004). However, we know little about whether or not changes in transfers from potentially more generous or stable welfare states compensated for any gendered effects related to tax progressivity reductions. After situating this research within existing literature in this introductory chapter, I offer four empirical chapters designed to answer these questions about how progressive taxation, including changes in levels of tax progressivity over time, produce gender differences in tax payment patterns and post-tax income and whether the contribution of taxes and transfers to gender differences in income changed over time. Throughout, the primary data are the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) databases, including a mix of high and low income countries for Chapters 2-3, and narrowing to the high income countries mentioned in the literature on taxing for growth for Chapters 4-5, which examine change over time. Chapter 2 presents a conceptual framework for understanding gender difference in income tax payment patterns and how taxation adjusts for market-based gender d…
author: Richards-Melamdir, Morgan A.
keywords: Economic Policy, Gender and Sexuality, Inequality and Stratification, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation, Politics and Social Change, Social Policy, Work, Economy and Organizations, women, gender, taxation, welfare state, inequality
date published: 2024-06-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:58:31Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York