This paper provides evidence over a long time period on the question of who bears the burden of social security contributions (SSC) in Germany. Following Alvaredo et al. (2016) we exploit kinks in the budget set generated by a drop in the marginal SSC rate at earnings caps. Based on...

Labor supply in the market for low-paid jobs in Germany is strongly influenced by tax exemptions - even for individuals to whom these exemptions do not apply. We present compelling evidence that an individual's choice set depends on other workers' preferences because firms cater their job offers...

The introduction of the minimum wage in the German painter and varnisher trade in 2003 is used as a natural experiment to study the effects of minimum wages on wages and employment. We find a significant positive effect on the average hourly wage of skilled workers in East Germany, but not in...

This paper exploits discontinuities induced by earnings caps for social security contributions (SSC) in Germany to analyse the effect of SSC on gross labour earnings. Empirical evidence is based on two complementary approaches utilising two administrative data sets. First, employment responses...

Über die Differenzierung von Sozialversicherungsbeiträgen in Arbeitgeber- und Arbeitnehmerbeiträge gibt es in Deutschland immer wieder Diskussionen, welche in den letzten Jahren sogar zu einer Aufweichung des Prinzips einer paritätischen Aufteilung geführt haben. Den meisten ökonomischen...

The paper validates an empirical approach developed by Alvaredo and Saez (2007) which estimates the economic incidence of social security contributions (SSC) on the basis of cross-sectional earnings distributions. The method utilizes discontinuities at earnings caps where the marginal SSC rate...

We test one of the main predictions of the financial flexibility paradigm that expectations about future firm-specific shocks affect the firm's leverage. We extract the expectations of small and large future shocks from the market prices of equity options. We find that expectations for future...

We study the real-time characteristics and drivers of jumps in option prices. To this end, we employ high frequency data from the 24-hour E-mini S&P 500 options market. We find that option prices do not jump simultaneously across strikes and maturities and are uncorrelated with jumps in the...

Two years ago, DIW Berlin introduced "Familienarbeitszeit", which offers wage replacement for families in which both partners decide to take on reduced full-time employment (working hours amounting to roughly 80 percent of a full-time job, henceforth referred to as "three-quarters employment")....

Vor zwei Jahren hat das DIW Berlin das Modell der Familienarbeitszeit vorgestellt. Es sieht eine Lohnersatzleistung für Familien vor, in denen sich beide Partner für eine reduzierte Vollzeittätigkeit (etwa 80 Prozent einer Vollzeitstelle) entscheiden. Die vorliegende Studie entwickelt dieses...