James Hausman Tax Law & Policy Workshop Series
presents
Frances Woolley
Professor of Economics and
Associate Dean, Faculty of Public Affiars
Carleton University
It's just not fair!
Canada's on-going debate over the taxation of families
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
12:30 - 2:00
Solarium (Room FA2) - Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park
The aim of this paper is to re-examine the Carter Commission’s stance on the taxation of married couples, and use it to illuminate current debates over the tax treatment of Canadian families. I argue that the Carter Commission’s fairness arguments for income splitting were neither well developed nor empirically grounded. I suggest there is an alternative, more pragmatic explanation of the Carter Commission’s advocacy of joint taxation: a desire to bring Canada’s tax treatment of families in line with the treatment south of the border. The issue was not so much the fairness of Canada’s tax treatment, but envy of American tax treatment.
I then argue that a parallel dynamic of envy exists today. When the Carter Commission reported, a man’s standard of living was primarily determined by his own earnings. Two income professional couples were rare. Today, the two-income couple is the norm, and a professional man with a stay-at-home spouse can expect to enjoy a lower standard of living than his contemporaries in dual-career relationships. This, I argue, leads single-earner families to envy dual-earner ones’ greater affluence. While this envy is understandable, it is not the job of the income tax system to remedy it.
Biography: I am a Professor of Economics at Carleton University, where I have taught since 1990. My research centres on families and public policy. My most-cited work is on modelling family-decision making, measuring inequality within the household, and feminist economics. I have received several awards for my research on tax-benefit policy towards families in Canada. Recently I have devoted more time to public engagement, blogging on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, and writing for the Globe and Mail and Post Media. My twitter profile says “I theorize about life.” I delight in using economics to explain everyday experience, and in sharing that passion with my students. I teach undergraduate public finance and Carleton’s fourth year microeconomics research seminar. I currently serve as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University.
I hold a BA from Simon Fraser University, an MA from Queen’s, and completed my doctorate at the London School of Economics, under the supervision of Tony Atkinson.
A light lunch will be provided.
For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.
