Essays on public policy and household decision making

This dissertation contains four empirical analyses of household decision making and public policy. We use structural microeconometric methods to evaluate specific aspects of national tax systems which are targeted at partnered households. Our aim is to identify the determinants of household decision making, quantify the behavioral effects which are likely to be induced by potential reforms of current fiscal policy, and to propose reforms which would be in line with the long-term goals set forth by the national governments. The first part of this dissertation consists of two chapters which investigate the relative effects of joint and individual income taxation on the behavior of partnered households in France and Australia, respectively. The policy analysis in both chapters is targeted at quantifying the labor supply responses and revenue effects induced by a shift from joint income taxation to individual income taxation. The second part of this dissertation consists of two chapters which analyze the effectiveness of fiscal stimuli for working parents, focusing on child care subsidy and tax credit reforms in the Netherlands. The policy goal of both chapters is to determine which of the policies - the child care subsidy or the tax credit - is more effective in stimulating the female labor supply. The effectiveness is assessed firstly in a static, and subsequently also in a dynamic modeling framework