Ahead of German federal elections in September 1998 it became obvious that tax reform would remain on the political agenda. In this context broadening of the tax base plays a crucial role. In any case, the reduction of subsidies is an economic policy topic of persistent concern. The Federal...

Based on six harmonized cross-sections of the German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure, we study inter-temporal changes in poverty from year 1978 to 2003. Results are decomposed by region and household types, and the bootstrap method is applied to test for the statistical significance of...