This paper investigates to what extent the tax and transfer systems in Europe protecthouseholds at different income levels against losses in current income caused by economicdownturns like the present financial crisis. We use a multi country micro simulation model toanalyse how shocks on market...

Whether observed differences in redistributive policies across countries are the result ofdifferences in social preferences or efficiency constraints is an important question that pavesthe debate about the optimality of welfare regimes. To shed new light on this question, weestimate labor supply...

How do different components of the tax and transfer systems affect disposable incomeinequality? This paper explores the redistributive effects of different tax benefit instruments inthe enlarged EU based on two approaches. Inequality analysis based on the standardapproach suggests that benefits...

Despite numerous studies on labor supply, the size of elasticities is rarely comparable acrosscountries. In this paper, we suggest the first large-scale international comparison ofelasticities, while netting out possible differences due to methods, data selection and theperiod of investigation....

There is clear evidence that fairness plays a role in redistribution. Individuals want tocompensate others for their misfortune, while they allow them to enjoy the fruits of their effort.Such fairness considerations have been introduced in political economy and optimal incometax models with a...

As the link between tax compliance and tax morale is found to be robust, finding thedeterminants of tax morale can help to understand and fight tax evasion. In this paper weanalyze the effect of progressive taxation on tax morale in a cross-country approach – whichhas not been investigated...