Gender Discriminatory Taxes, Fairness Perception, and Labor Supply

This paper analyzes the gender-specific effect of discriminatory taxation on fairness perception and individual labor supply decisions in a laboratory experiment. We violate distributive justice through the random application of tax rates, as well as procedural justice through taxation based on taxpayer gender. Male participants perceived gender discriminatory taxation as unfair in and of itself. Female participants perceived violations of justice as unfair, if they ended up with the higher tax rate. The perceived fairness did (not) significantly affect male (female) participants' labor supply. Overall, gender-based discrimination has a negative effect on labor supply.