We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes...

In this paper we develop a methodology for identifying a population group surveyed latently in the (target) survey relevant for further processing, for example poverty calculations, but surveyed explicitly in another (source) survey, not suitable for such processing. Identification is achieved...

We use factor analysis to derive a robust measure of religiosity from items reported in five waves of the World Value Survey. Our measure of religiosity is negatively correlated with per capita income. Development apparently causes religiosity to fall to about half its pre-modern level. Most...

This paper examines the empirical relevance of the double dividend of revenue neutral marginal environmental tax reforms. For this purpose we use an extended version of the Ahmad-Stern model of indirect taxation. This version includes environmental externalities. We estimate the key parameters...

The paper studies the macroeconomic effects of government spending shocks in an economy characterized by positive trend growth. It shows that the lower is the trend growth rate the less inflationary are government spending shocks and vice versa. Moreover, on impact output is higher but exhibits...

The paper investigates by means of cointegration analysis whether the recently observed low levels of private saving and the current account balance in the United States are worrisome in the sense that they cannot be sufficiently explained by determinants which performed well in the past. Stock...

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Zusammenhänge zwischen Erdölpreisen, Kraftstoffpreisen, verbrauchten Mengen und dem Energiesteueraufkommen. Wesentliche Ergebnisse sind, dass die verbrauchten Kraftstoffmengen mit der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Produktion und den Erdölpreisen schwanken. Vor...

It is argued that the German system of supporting low wage income earners by government transfers gives incentives for employers and employees to contract low wages and then to exploit the government. The paper analyses if such incentives do exist. It turns out that this is the case under...

Based on a description of the German system of taxes and transfers, the incentives to work are analyzed for several groups of the labor force. The effects of the “Hartz IV” reform (effective from 2005 onwards) on the incentives receive particular attention. It turns out that the marginal...

The proposal involves the establishment of ?welfare accounts? for every person in a country. There are to be four accounts: a retirement account (covering pensions), an unemployment account (covering unemployment support), a human capital account (covering education and training), and a health...