Abstract

The problems associated with the ageing of the population have led to a call for family poli-cies designed to raise fertility. If such policies hope to contribute to increasing the birth rate, they must consider the fact that many women have set their sights on working (Atkinson 1999). It can be assumed that a large proportion of women would like to have children. And yet, women often value a professional activity so high-ly that they put off their desire for children. To ensure the com-patibility of job and family, a whole series of conditions must be satisfied. Women must be released from working at the birth of a child. Moreover, suffi-cient childcare facilities must be available. The world of work must be designed to accommo-date families. And finally, the net income of families with children must be sufficiently high for them to afford external child-care facilities, unless these facili-ties are financed from the public purse (Fenge and Ochel 2001). Child allowance or tax exemp-tions for children may be grant-ed in order to increase the net income of such families. And tax splitting for spouses benefits couples with children indirectly. But families with children are also eligible for preferential tax treatment in other ways. The fol-lowing paper compares the tax privileges offered to families in an international comparison on the basis of data calculated by the OECD in 2002. The OECD calculations are based on a representa-tive taxpayer. This is an employee earning an aver-age wage by working full-time in the manufactur-ing sector, i.e. an average production worker. The