During the first three decades of the People’s Republic of China, income differences across social classes were compressed. Formal education was not an important determinant of personal income. In this study, there was no difference in income between white-collar and blue-collar families, although white-collar parents had more education than blue-collar parents. In urban China, where population...

This paper analyzes optimal joint income taxation of two-earner couples. Each couple is modelled as a single rational economic agent supplying labor along two dimensions: primary and secondary earnings. In contrast to the previous literature, we consider fully general joint income tax systems. The optimum tax system is separable into two individual and independent tax schedules only if skills, ...

Guided by social role theory, science research has established an individual's earnings relative to their partner (i.e., income) as important indicator of various marital- and well-being-related outcomes. Yet, despite a deep interest in employee compensation systems, management scholars have rarely considered the implications income for workers. To address this oversight, we consider how confor...

BACKGROUND Female-breadwinner families represent a relatively new phenomenon in Europe. Little is known about the determinants of this couple type, which sensibly diverts from the traditional economic superiority of men within the household. OBJECTIVE This paper studies the contextual correlates of partners’ contribution to the household income, distinguishing between female-breadwinner, male-b...

Optimal Income Taxation of Married Couples: An Empirical Analysis of Joint and Individual Taxation In this paper we develop a discrete model of optimal taxation of married couples and empirically discuss the optimality of income taxation for this group. To this end, we derive the social welfare function which guarantees that joint taxation of married couples is optimal. We will contrast this we...

Several studies have shown that a wife's strong (socio)economic position is associated with an increase in the risk of divorce. Less is known about such effects for cohabiting relationships. Using a unique and large-scale sample of administrative records from The Netherlands, we analyze the link between couples' income dynamics and union dissolution for married and cohabiting unions over a 10-y...

Income Pooling and Household Division of Labor: Evidence from Danish Couples If income pooling indicates primary earners’ willingness to trade part of their income with spouses who earn less and work more in household production, then among specialized couples income pooling will be positively associated with the price of commercial domestic services, substitutes for household production. In li...

We present descriptive statistics on pension participation and types of pensions among married couples, using data from the 1996/2008 Panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation and Social Security administrative records. Previous research has focused on pension coverage by marital status, but has not examined couples as a unit. Because couples usually share income, viewing them as...

OBJECTIVE This study examined predictors of relationship stability over 5 years among heterosexual cohabiting and married African American couples raising an elementary-school-age child. The vulnerability-stress-adaptation model of relationships (Karney & Bradbury, 1995) guided the investigation. Contextual variables were conceptualized as important determinants of education and income, which i...