We build and estimate a structural dynamic life-cycle model of household labor supply, fertility, and consumption behavior. The model features several sources of heterogeneity in household members’ characteristics and it incorporates most of the fiscal rules that affect household net income.
The parameters of the model are estimated using Italian longitudinal data for the period 2004-12 in order to investigate the causes of the relatively low labor supply by married women in this country. The model matches many characteristics of the data quite well.
We use the estimated model to simulate a few counterfactual fiscal and welfare policies: some of them are effective in decreasing poverty rates while increasing labor supply.
