Generous income support programs as provided by European welfare states have often been blamed to reduce work incentives for lower income classes and to increase durations of unemployment. Standard studies measure work incentives based on annual income concepts. This paper analyzes how work...

Anfang 2004 trat der in der sogenannten Hartz-III-Reform beschlossene Umbau der Vermittlungstätigkeit der öffentlichen Arbeitsverwaltung in Kraft. Ziel war es, die Arbeitslosigkeit durch eine schnellere Jobvermittlung zu senken. Zwar nahm die Arbeitslosigkeit seitdem tatsächlich ab, der Autor...

The purpose of the present note is to explore the structure of optimal income taxation/redistribution in an economy where the welfare of individuals depends in part on relative after-tax consumption, i.e., we specify individual welfare as a function of absolute and relative after-tax...