Gender analysis of the changes in indirect taxes introduced by the coalition government, 2010-2011

On behalf of the WBG, Jerome De Henau and Cristina Santos have produced an examination of the UK government's main changes in indirect taxes from a gender perspective. This considers changes in excise duties on alcohol, tobacco, fuel and in VAT, and analyses the combined effect of these changes, together with changes in insurance premium tax, air passenger duty and gambling duty

Examining public policy from a gendered intra-household perspective: changes in family-related policies in the UK, Australia and Germany since the mid-nineties

Public policy can affect many different gender inequalities. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of policy on gender inequalities within households. This paper analyses a range of family-related policy changes over the last fifteen years in Australia, Germany and the UK to compare their potential effects on intra-household gender inequalities. These include changes in parental leave policies, working time regulation, childcare support and financial support to families. Many of these changes are found to have contradictory effects on within household inequalities, mainly because those that improve women’s incomes in their current gender roles may also undermine incentives to challenge traditional gender roles. All three countries have implemented substantial reforms over the period considered. However, with labour market activation policies tending to favour an inherently unequal one-and-a-half earner household, the effects on inequalities within households did not meet increasingly egalitarian gender role attitudes

Recovery for whom? The Juncker's plan must not be a missed opportunity for gender equality in Europe

The 315 billion Investment Plan for Europe proposed by European Commission President Juncker represents a good point of departure from the usual and exclusive focus on fiscal containment and public debt reduction. However, its almost exclusive focus on physical infrastructure spending and investment in male-dominated industries will further undermine progress towards gender equality, in terms of pay and conditions as well as employment opportunities for women

A Service of zbw Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Costing a feminist plan for a caring economy: the case of free universal childcare in the UK Costing a feminist plan for a caring economy: the case of free un

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Abstract This paper makes the case for providing universal and free childcare services in the UK to contribute to building a care economy as a better alternative to austerity and spending cuts, one that would foster gender equality and quality employment. It estimates the total cost of such services using different assumptions on staff pay and coverage and the related direct employment effects. It discusses the different multipliers that could be derived from such 'investment' and the related tax revenue for the government. It argues that the net public funding of such an extensive and high quality childcare provision for all children aged 6 months to 5 years (prior to primary school entry) can be achieved by reversing some of the tax give-aways implemented since 2010 and which have mainly benefited men. The discussion explores the ways in which universal childcare provision, combined with a reformed parental leave and family benefit system could promote gender equality in both employment and unpaid care

Comparing welfare regimes by their effects on intra-household inequalities

Gender analyses of policies tend to evaluate their effects on gender equality in access to the labour market and on gender roles within households; these have been examined both within and across different welfare state regimes (see for example Lewis 2009). However relatively little attention has been paid to effects on gender inequalities in access to and control over households’ financial resources. This chapter analyses the effect of employment status, to capture individuals’ paid and unpaid contributions to their household, on changes in satisfaction with household income, taken as an indicator of relative access to household resources. Intra-household gender inequalities can arise through policies’ effects both on the intra-household division of contributions and on the salience of that division to men’s and women’s access to household resources. Results are compared for three countries, Australia, Germany and the UK, chosen, not only because of the characteristics of their welfare regimes, but also because they all collect good household panel data that can be used for empirical investigation of such intra-household effects, and some comparative results are presented in this chapter

Gender equality and taxation. A UK case study

The issue of taxes has always been a highly politicized one in the UK, and never more so than in 2009 as the UK government discusses how to rebalance its budget after rescuing its banking sector with its economy suffering its most severe financial crisis since the 1930s. Debates about taxes, however have tended to focus mainly on the overall level of taxation and government expenditure and on distributional effects between households. With the exception of the work of the Women's Budget Group, a think tank that regularly comments on the gender implications of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s annual budgets, little attention has been paid to the gender aspects of the taxation system. In particular, there has been little debate about what effects any proposals for tax rises to pay for a 2008 stimulus package or for bailing out the banking sector are likely to have on men and women. This chapter seeks to address this gap by analysing some gender aspects of the UK personal income tax system and its expenditure taxes. Taxes have both distributional and behavioural impacts and both of these impacts can be gendered. In this chapter we consider their impact on both inter- and intra-household inequalities, as well as whether taxes reinforce or challenge existing gender roles

Financial togetherness and autonomy within couples

This chapter examines the implications of the concepts of togetherness and financial autonomy for gender equality, drawing on findings from both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research explored the two concepts in individual interviews with men and women in low- to moderate- income couples. The quantitative research used the British Household Panel Survey to analyse the factors affecting the differing assessments of their household income by men and women in couples across the range of incomes. The findings support the argument that an honest recognition of interdependence (or togetherness) is essential when analysing women’s financial autonomy

Maybe Baby: Comparing Partnered Women's Employment and Child Policies in the EU-15

This paper examines how child-related public policies influence women's employment in Europe. The analysis compares the difference in employment status between partnered mothers and nonmothers across the EU-15 using a wide range of self-constructed indicators of child policies such as childcare provision, parental leave, and tax-cash benefits. Using the recycled predictions method, it is possible to isolate the impact of the presence of a child from other characteristics likely to influence women's labor-market outcomes. Country-specific employment gaps among women are computed at different ages for the youngest child, for different outcomes (inactivity and part-time or full-time work), and for different levels of education. The main conclusion is that when it comes to securing equal labor-market access and conditions for mothers of young children and non-mothers, public childcare provision has the strongest impact. In the absence of public childcare, not even the most highly educated mothers can cope.Labor-market conditions, social policies, postponement of maternity, synthetic indicators, dual-earner couples, fertility,