The article examines the macroeconomic effects of the recent labour market reforms in Germany. The reforms increased the downward pressure on wages and led to rising income inequality. Many German economists welcomed this effect, because they consider lower wages and higher wage dispersion major...

"Manufacturing industries differ with respect to their energy intensity, labor-to-capital ratio and their pollution intensity. Across the United States, there is significant variation in electricity prices and labor and environmental regulation. This paper uses a regression discontinuity...

In 2007 and 2008 Polish governments introduced a series of reforms which led to a substantial reduction in the tax 'wedge' (in Polish: 'klin') on labour. The mean ATR on total labour cost was reduced from 41.6% to 34.0%. We show that when considered together the package of introduced reforms...

Ergänzend zu den Beiträgen im ifo Schnelldienst Nr. 2/2014 äußern sich Christoph M. Schmidt, RWI und Sachverständigenrat und Benjamin Weigert, Sachverständigenrat, zu den Koalitionsvereinbarungen. Ihrer Ansicht nach vernachlässigt die Wirtschaftspolitik die Frage, wie die...