From Welfare to Work: Evaluating a Proposed Tax and Benefit Reform Targeted at Single Mothers in Sweden

Abstract

In this paper we propose a tax and benefit reform to increase the working hours and to decrease the welfare participation of single mothers in Sweden. We have access to high-quality tax and income data, and use a detailed tax-benefit program to generate precise budget-sets. We formulate and estimate a structural, static model of labor supply and welfare participation. The results suggest that labor supply among single mother households in Sweden is quite elastic, and that there is self-selection into welfare. The proposed reform would generate welfare-gains for virtually everyone in the sample, yet would be revenue neutral