"Labour market reforms that are designed to stimulate labour supply at the lower end of the wage distribution can never be precisely restricted to affect only the target group. Spillovers to and feedback from other segments of the labour market are unavoidable and may counteract the direct...

"This paper analyses the (self-)selection of migrants between countries which have substantial differences in the inequality of earnings and income levels. In an extended version of the Roy-model we consider migration costs, which tend to grow less than proportional with the income level. As a...

In der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GKV) müssen einige Versicherte einen geringeren, andere einen höheren als den versicherungstechnisch äquivalenten Beitrag entrichten. Die dadurch bewirkte Umverteilung wird in der Sozialpolitik als sozialer Ausgleich bezeichnet. Der Beitrag entwickelt...

In the long term, it is high and increasing unemployment which constitutes the key determinant for a decline in the adjusted wage share and the real unit labour costs. Economic growth plays a similarly important role. Higher investment will increase the profit share. Countries whose economy and...

"We estimate the effects of the reform of German Unemployment Insurance that replaced the wage-related Unemployment Assistance with an income maintenance Programme and stronger means testing. We model the tax-benefit system and use the Socio-Economic Panel. We estimate a discrete labour supply...

Income from work is subject to a high tax burden, which at the lower end is mostly the result of high social insurance contributions. Alleviating this burden by reducing contributions to social insurance for low-income employees would increase the monthly net income by 5.2 percent for 90 percent...

"The problem of trying to estimate what the effect of the minimum wage will have on employment (or any other outcome) has puzzled economists for over 150 years. Some factions in Germany have recently contemplated supplementing their extensive system of sector and branch minimum wages with a...