Abstract
Recently, Frank and McKenzie (J Bioecon 8(3):269–274, 2006) pointed out that beside discrimination, there is a further reason for a wage gap between males and females: If females value partner wages more than males in the mating market, this would increase the pay gap. In this paper, it is analyzed whether there exist policies that may improve the position of females and males from a distributional point of view without destroying the signal females want about the labor market success of males. First-best redistribution policies require the knowledge of the male and female wage preferences. Because this information is not available, a first-best redistribution policy seems infeasible. As an alternative policy, a differentiated wage tax is considered which is less information demanding than a first-best policy. It is shown that a welfare increasing wage tax scheme does exist and that an adequately chosen wage tax scheme may decrease the gender wage gap without destroying the desired signal of wages for labor market success.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Buss, D. M., Abbott, M., Angleitner, A., Asherian, A., Biaggio, A., Blanco-Villasenor, A., ... Yang, K.-S. (1990). International preferences in selecting mates: A study of 37 cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 21(1), 5–47.
Buss D. M., Shackelford T. K., Kirkpatrick L. A., Larsen R. J. (2001) A half century of American mate preferences. Journal of Marriage and the Family 63(2): 491–503
Frank S. A., McKenzie R. B. (2006) The male–female pay gap driven by coupling between labor markets and mating markets. Journal of Bioeconomics 8(3): 269–274
Hellwig M. F. (1986) The optimal linear income tax revisited. Journal of Public Economics 31(2): 163–179
Kenrick D. T., Sadalla E. K., Groth G., Trost M. R. (1990) Evolution, traits, and the stages of human courtship: Qualifying the parental investment model. Journal of Personality 58(1): 97–116
Konishi H. (1995) A Pareto-improving commodity tax reform under a smooth nonlinear income tax. Journal of Public Economics 56(3): 413–446
Konrad, K. A., & Lommerud, K. E. (2008). Love and taxes—and matching institutions. Discussion Paper, Social Science Center Berlin, Germany, and Department of Economics, Free University of Berlin; Department of Economics, University of Bergen, Norway.
Reichardt, A. (2003). Mikroökonomik der Altersvorsorge [Microeconomics of old-age provision]. Berlin: Logos Verlag.
Sheshinski E. (1972) The optimal linear income-tax. Review of Economic Studies 39: 297–302
Varian H. R. (1992) Microeconomic analysis (3rd ed). W.W. Norton & Company, New York
Wiederman M. W. (1993) Evolved gender differences in mate preferences: Evidence from personal advertisments. Ethology and Sociobiology 14(5): 331–351
Wiederman M. W., Rice Allgeier E. (1992) Gender differences in mate selection criteria: Sociobiological or socioeconomic explanation?. Ethology and Sociobiology 13(2): 115–124
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Prinz, A. Labor markets and mating markets: Using taxes to reduce the male–female pay gap. J Bioecon 12, 43–53 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10818-010-9079-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10818-010-9079-4