This paper bolsters Prescott's (2004) claim that high taxes are responsible for lacklustre labor market performance in continental European countries. We develop a lifecycle model with endogenous skill formation, endogenous labor supply, and endogenous retirement. Labor taxation distorts not...

Using data from the 2006 wave of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), this paper analyzes how a minimum wage affects employment, wage inequality, public expenditures, and aggregate income in the low-wage sector. It is shown that a statutory minimum wage of EUR 7.50 per hour would cost...

Do minimum wages reduce in-work-poverty and wage inequality? Or can alternative policies do better? We evaluate theses issues for the exemplary case of Germany that suffers from high unemployment among low-skilled workers and rising wage dispersion at the bottom of the wage distribution. We...

Recent theoretical work shows that precautionary savings increase in response to an increase in first-order risk. In addition, it is known that the welfare state, being an insurance or consumption-smoothing mechanism, reduces the negative welfare effect of future income uncertainty. We build a...

This paper looks into the role the tax-benefit system plays in mitigating the effects of widespread socio-economic risks in the context of individualization, welfare state transformation and recent austerity. We analyse the drivers behind the changing role of the risk-mitigating social policies...

This is an addendum to EUROMOD working paper EM 12/17, which updates, corrects and extends the previous evaluation of an illustrative Citizen's Basic Income scheme. Debate about Citizen's Basic Income - an unconditional and nonwithdrawable income for every individual - has shifted in character....

Debate about Citizen's Basic Income - an unconditional and nonwithdrawable income for every individual - is shifting in character. An earlier phase related to the proposal's desirability; then followed debate about its feasibility; and now attention is turning to questions of implementation. A...

Does the supply of a welfare state create its own demand? Many economic scholars studying welfare arrangements refer to Say's law and insinuate a self-destructive welfare state. However, little is known about the empirical validity of these assumptions and hypotheses. We study the dynamic effect...

This paper looks at the effects of tax-benefit systems and social stratification determinants on the probability of poverty among mothers after childbirth and divorce/separation. The analysis was carried out for twelve EU countries, which represent a variety of welfare regimes providing...

A Citizen's Basic Income, sometimes called a Basic Income, a Universal Basic Income, or a Citizen's Income, is an unconditional and nonwithdrawable income paid to every individual. The purpose of this paper is to summarise the results of microsimulation research on Citizen's Basic Income schemes...