性别与税收：来自81个经济体新数据的见解

Hannelore Maria L. Niesten, Luiza Ferraz Di Ricco, and Alena Sakhonchik*N expenditure reports. The findings show that tax systems may overlook realities specific to women, leading tounequal outcomes for women and men. The Brief highlights policy options for governments seeking toensure that tax systems work equitably for women and men. These options include shifting toward individualtaxation and removing family-based provisions that disadvantage secondary earners; reviewing and phasingout tax measures that differ for women and men; investing in sex-disaggregated tax data systems; andintegrating gender into tax expenditure reporting and incidence analysis. This Brief is the first in a three-partseries on gender and fiscal policy. Subsequent Briefs will examine gender-responsive budgeting andsynthesize lessons across taxation and spending.Public Disclosure Authorized Onthe administrative side,complex procedures,highcompliance costs, and weak outreach disproportionately affectwomen entrepreneurs, especially those operating micro and smallenterprises in the informal or semi-formal economy (Baer et al.2023; Komatsu et al. 2024; Shaukat et al. 2023). This is becauseentrepreneurs must interact with the tax system on an ongoingbasis—through registration, record-keeping, invoicing, multiplefilings,and post-filing processes—whereas most households,including those in the informal sector, have only limited or indirect Why taxation matters for gender equality Fiscal policy is a critical lever for advancing gender equality andinclusivegrowth(Clements and Stotsky 2017;Grown andMascagni 2024; Stotsky 2020). This Brief, which is the first in aseries of three on the interaction between gender and fiscal policy,focuses specifically on taxation. As a core element of fiscal policy,taxes influence women’s economic opportunities through severalchannels:labor supply decisions,entrepreneurship and firmPublic Disclosure Authorized A large body of evidence shows that the way household income istaxed can significantly affect women’s participation in the labormarket. Systems with joint filing and family-based taxation tend toimpose higher marginal tax rates on secondary earners—typicallywomen—thereby discouraging their labor supply (Apps and Rees2007; OECD 2016, 2022). Quantitative studies for high-incomeeconomies find that joint taxation or spousal deductions createmeasurable “secondary earner penalties” and reduce the hours married Despite growing recognition of these issues, cross-country dataon how gender is embedded in tax laws and administration havebeen limited. The new WBL taxation indicators help fill this gap. New WBL data measures important genderedaspects of taxation The WBL taxation data set focuses on income taxation andrevenue administration in 81 economies in 7 regions of the world,conceptually drawing on prior work on how tax systems and fiscal *Affiliations:World Bank, Development Economics, Policy Indicators Group, Women, Business and the Law (WBL). For correspondence: hniesten@worldbank.org;lferrazdiricco@worldbank.org; asakhonchik@worldbank.org.Acknowledgements:This Brief is part of a three-part series on gender and fiscal policy based on the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper “Mapping the GenderDimension in Taxation and Budgeting: A Cross-Country Study of Laws, Policies, and Practices” (Niesten et al. 2025). The Policy Briefs synthesize key findings from the workingpaper, which provides the full methodological framework, legal references, and country-level data. Brief 2 focuses on gender-responsive budgeting. Brief 3 outlines across-cutting reform agenda for gender-equitable fiscal systems. The WBL team—including the authors—collected the data used for this study. The authors gratefullyacknowledge the contributions of Lolita Laperle Forget, Shantel Marekera, and Eduardo Calderon Pontaza, as well as valuable peer review and comments from Caren Grown(Brookings Institution), Ceren Ozer (MTI), Hitomi Komatsu (MTI), Urska Zrinski (EECG1), Janet Stotsky (consultant on public policy and gender), and Emilia Galiano, and AnaMaria Tribin Uribe (WBL). The authors also thank Norman Loayza, Tea Trumbic, and David Francis for guidance throughout the publication process. Nancy Morrison providedexcellent editorial assistance. This work was made possible through generous support from the Gates Foundation.Objective and disclaimer:The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this brief are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Women, Business and the Lawquestions on gender dimensions in taxation Box 1 Personal income tax filing1. Does the income tax law establish individual filing for spouses or cohabiting couples? 1.1. If yes, can couples choose to file jointly?2. Does the income tax law establish mandatory joint filing for spouses or cohabitating couples?2.1. If yes, can couples choose to file separately? Income tax provisions that treat women and men differently3. Does