The purpose of this article is to quantify the employment effects of the recent German welfare reform. The key element of this reform was to merge the coexisting transfer systems Social Assistance (SA) and Unemployment Assistance (UA) into one unified benefit (Arbeitslosengeld II -- ALG II). We...

In recent decades, Germany's statutory health insurance expenditure increased drastically. To combat moral hazard, moderate copayments for the purchase of prescription drugs were introduced and increased several times. These measures, however, have been insufficient to buck the steadily...