We study three budget-neutral reforms of the German tax and transfer system designed to improve work incentives for people with low incomes: a feasible flat tax reform that provides a basic income which is equal to the current level of the means tested unemployment benefit, and two alternative...

A common assumption in the optimal taxation literature is that the social planner maximizes a welfarist social welfare function with weights decreasing with income. However, high transfer withdrawal rates in many countries imply very low weights for the working poor in practice. We reconcile...

In außergewöhnlich starken Krisen kann es notwendig sein, dass der Staat im Sinne der gesellschaftlichen Solidarität die von einkommensschwächeren Haushalten getragenen finanziellen Lasten stärker abfedert, als es automatische Stabilisatoren und diskretionäre (nach Ermessen getätigte),...