Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 10, 1999

Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting

Public Policy and Underlying Values
Impacts on Business

We examine the income tax treatment of married couples across several industrialized countries to observe the different underlying values and socially acceptable trade-offs between equity and efficiency. Of the three models that emerged, we discuss the unit of taxation, the equal treatment of equal-earning couples, and marriage neutrality.