Middle class incomes in the EU are highest in Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Austria, and Sweden, and lowest in Eastern European countries. The middle class in Bulgaria and Romania are at the bottom of EU nominal incomes, but their living costs are just half of the EU average. When accounting for...

The need for larger public investment in Europe drew attention to its role in the EU fiscal governance. The current reform proposal of the European Commission aims to incentivize higher public investment by softening deficit rules, likely at the cost of incurring higher deficits. If fiscal rules...

We examine how inequality evolved in Germany during the 1983-2020 period. Labor market participation of women increased significantly, while average weekly working hours of women changed little. Gender differences in earnings are still pervasive and more pronounced for individuals with children....

Rent caps can have significant unintended consequences through lower housing supply. Instead of making housing more affordable, purchase subsidies have provided a windfall for sellers. The real estate transfer tax levied on properties' purchase price substantially decreases property prices. The...

Most workers were favorably surprised by their productivity in work from home (WFH) mode during the pandemic. Employer plans for WFH levels after the pandemic rise strongly with these individual-level productivity surprises. Planned WFH levels also rise with the cumulative stringency of...

Providing information about the economic cost of sexual orientation discrimination significantly increases support for measures to safeguard equal employment opportuni ties for lesbians and gays. Treatment effect spills over to support for equal employment opportunities based on ethnic origin,...

We present a novel approach to assess the effect of EU cohesion policy on economic activity. Project-level data on EU funding is combined with nighttime light emissions data. Higher EU funding is associated with increased economic activity at the municipal level. Remote sensing data can provide...