This paper deals with optimal income taxation based on a model with households where men and women allocate their time between market work and household production, and where households di¤er depending on which spouse has comparative advantage in market work. The purpose is to analyze the tax...

This paper delivers new insights into the development of income inequality and regional stratification in Germany after unification using a new method for detecting social stratification by a decomposition of the GINI index which yields the obligatory between- and within-group components as well...

This paper explores the determinants of individual well-being as measured by self-reported levels of satisfaction with income. Making full use of the panel data nature of the German Socio-Economic Panel, we provide empirical evidence for well-being depending on absolute and on relative levels of...

This paper analyzes consumption- and income inequality trends in Sweden during the period 1988-2005. Similar studies for the US have found that consumption inequality has increased much less than income inequality in recent decades. Results in this paper indicate that consumption inequality...