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...

Im Mai 2014 prognostizierte OECD-Generalsekretär Gurría: "Deutschland bekommt ein Problem mit Altersarmut". Die Sorge um wachsende Altersarmut hat in Deutschland längst die Politik erreicht. Bereits im Frühjahr 2008 warnten die beiden ostdeutschen Minister aus Sachsen-Anhalt und...

Das Papier zeigt, dass die seit Jahrzehnten andauernde Klagen wissenschaftlich tätiger Ökonomen,dass Öffentlichkeit und Politik nicht genug auf Ergebnisse der ökonomischen Forschung hören,zumindest für Deutschland im Quervergleich zu anderen Wissenschaften in Bezug auf das...

We analyze empirically the optimal design of social insurance and assistance programs when families obtain insurance by making labor supply choices for both spouses. For this purpose, we specify a structural life-cycle model of the labor supply and savings decisions of singles and married...

In this paper we empirically derive the welfare effects of a shift from joint taxation with full income splitting to a revenue neutral system of individual taxation in Germany. For the empirical welfare evaluation we estimate the preference heterogeneity in the population and use normative...

In Germany, individuals in need of long-term care receive support through benefits of the long-term care insurance. A central goal of the insurance is to support informal care provided by family members. Care recipients can choose between benefits in kind (formal home care services) and benefits...

Parental leave and subsidized child care are prominent examples of family policies supporting the reconciliation of family life and labor market careers for mothers. In this paper, we combine different empirical strategies to evaluate the employment effects of these policies for mothers in...