The German government plans to introduce a minimum wage from 2015. This must be understood as a response to the decline in collective bargaining coverage and the marked increase in employment in the low-wage sector. The authors discuss how many workers are affected by this new regulation and...

Looking around the world, one realizes that national minimum wages are not uncommon. Yet it is still very difficult to estimate what effects a minimum wage might have in Germany. This is not just a question of how high the minimum wage should be — its impacts would also depend on many details...

In Germany in the last decade, corporate incomes have increased much more sharply than private household incomes. At the same time, the inequality of household incomes has increased. High-income households have profited particularly from investment income and self-employment. The income gap has...

Ist inzwischen zusammengewachsen, was zusammengehört? Die Prüfung dieser von Willy Brandt im November 1989 formulierten Vision erfordert eine Bilanzierung, die die Verteilung von Einkommen und Arbeitsmarktchancen ebenso in den Blick nimmt wie Haushalts- und Familienformen und die subjektiven...

The economic literature to date is underestimating the importance of regional price level differences. Only in the form of "rent indices" are these differences considered in relation to overall quality of life. As experimental estimates by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban...

Die 1990 eingeführte Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion der BRD mit der DDR und schließlich die deutsche Wiedervereinigung war und ist für jede Statistik, die versucht die Lebensverhältnisse in Ost und West zu vergleichen, eine große Herausforderung. In seinem einleitenden Teil dokumentiert...