Public disability insurance (DI) programs in many countries face pressure to reduce their generosity in order to remain sustainable. In this paper, we investigate the welfare effects of giving a larger role to private insurance markets in the face of public DI cuts. Exploiting a unique reform...

A model is presented for simulating the tax burden on highly skilled manpower. The effective average tax rate, defined as the relative wedge between total remuneration and disposable income, is computed. Income and payroll taxes and social security contributions not yielding an equivalent...

How can retirement savings be increased? We explore a unique policy change in the context of the German pension system to study this question. As of 2004, the German pension authority started to send out annual letters providing detailed and comprehensible information about the pension system...

A model is presented for simulating the tax burden on highly skilled manpower. The effective average tax rate, defined as the relative wedge between total remuneration and disposable income, is computed. Income and payroll taxes and social security contributions not yielding an equivalent...

The recent financial and sovereign debt crises around the world have sparked a growing literature on models and empirical estimates of defaultable debt. Frequently households and firms come under default threat, local governments can default, and recently sovereign default threats were eminent...

The recent financial and sovereign debt crises around the world have sparked a growing literature on models and empirical estimates of defaultable debt. Frequently households and firms come under default threat, local governments can default, and recently sovereign default threats were eminent...

This paper empirically analyses whether both personal and corporate taxation have an impact on companies' capital structure decisions. We investigate the effect of the difference in taxation of debt and equity financing on capital structures. Our empirical results, based on a comprehensive panel...

This paper empirically analyses whether both personal and corporate taxation have an impact on companies' capital structure decisions. We investigate the effect of the difference in taxation of debt and equity financing on capital structures. Our empirical results, based on a comprehensive panel...

Using a unique, hand-collected database of all venture- backed firms listed on Germany's Neuer Markt, we analyze the history of venture capital financing of these firms before the IPO and the behavior of venture capitalists at the IPO. We can detect significant differences in the behavior and...

In this paper, we analyze the investment and divestment patterns of different types of venture capitalists. Using a data set em- bracing all venture-backed IPOs that occurred on Germany's Neuer Markt we investigate whether the governance structures, objectives, abilities and track records of...