Given a general utility function and income distribution, we compare two systems of income redistribution: unemployment benefits (UB) conditional on not working and basic income (BI) available to everyone. Based on strong empirical evidence we first focus on extensive margins of labor supply....

The paper analyses the impact of natural resource abundance on selected governance indicators. In contrast to earlier studies that are mainly confined to cross-sectional analysis, we use a panel data set with a large number of countries and an extended period of time. Moreover, we employ an...

Regional labor markets are characterized by huge disparities. The literature on the wage curve argues that there exists a negative relationship between unemployment and wages. However, this literature cannot explain how disparities of these variables between regions endogenously arise. In...

Regional labor markets are characterized by huge disparities between unemployment rates. Models of the New Economic Geography explain how disparities between regional goods markets endogenously arise but usually assume full employment. This paper discusses regional unemployment disparities by...

This paper examines the predictive power of different estimation approaches for reservation wages. It applies stochastic frontier models for employed workers and the approach from Kiefer and Neumann (1979b) for unemployed workers. Furthermore, the question of whether or not reservation wages...

The labor market effects of the recent financial and economic crisis are rather heterogeneous across countries and regions. Such differences in labor market performance among industrialized countries are an issue of ongoing research. The objective of this paper is to analyse labor market...

In a simulation-based study with data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we analyze the effects of the newly introduced statutory minimum wage of 8.50 Euro per working hour in Germany on the gender wage gap. In our first scenario where we abstain from employment effects, the pay...

This paper makes use of data from the German socio-economic panel to gain new insights into the determinants of unemployment duration in Germany. Due to substantial differences with respect to labour market outcomes we follow a stratified approach with respect to gender and ethnicity. To analyze...

We first confirm previous results with the German Socio-economic Panel, and obtain strong negative effects of comparison income. However, when we split the sample by age, we find quite different results for reference income. The effects on life-satisfaction are positive and significant for those...