In response to PISA, all German federal states but one have adopted central exit examinations (CEEs) at the end of all secondary school tracks. Theoretically, the advantages of CEEs are fairly undisputed. CEEs make teaching and learning output observable and comparable across schools, and...

In 2008, school districts were abolished in North Rhine-Westphalia. The paper focuses on the question whether neighborhood characteristics have an influence on the school choice behavior of parents with different socioeconomic and cultural resources. The analysis is based on data of a telephone...

In this paper we look at school choice in primary schools in Germany. The data used is from Wuppertal, a major city in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), where school districts were abolished in 2008 to allow for free school choice. Here we look at the situation before 2008 to learn more about choice...

The paper addresses the question whether the preferential treatment of retained earnings according to section 34a EStG is suitable to achieve a comparable tax burden of partnerships and corporations. It can be shown that it is impossible to determine a reference value for all domestic companies....

In 2008, school districts were abolished in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federal state. Critics have argued that free school choice will lead to increased segregation and educational disparities. The data used is from Wuppertal, a major city in NRW. Since the Turkish...

This paper analyzes the effect of the abolition of school districts in North-Rhine Westphalia on ethnic segregation in primary schools, using data from the school statistics from 2006/07 to 2008/09. The effect of the new policy is not easily identified, because several additional changes to the...

The German corporate tax reform of 2008 has brought significant changes for determining the tax base of the trade tax. The paper simulates the new rules and shows how the tax burden is affected. Simulation is based on representative cost data of the manufacturing sector in 2006. The results show...

This paper adds to the literature on extracurricular early childhood education and child development by exploiting unique data on an educational project in Germany, the Junior University (JU). Utilizing a quasi-experimental study design, we estimate the causal short-term effect of JU enrollment...