Empirical studies on minimum wages are primarily concerned with employment while their effects on income inequality receive less attention. Yet, a popular argument for a federal minimum wage in Germany is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this...

Household debt has increased significantly since the second half of the 20th century, making it one of the cornerstones of household financial behaviour. It is, however, necessary to monitor that indebtedness does not spiral out of control, as it can have negative consequences both at the micro...

This paper analyzes the effect of the introduction of a final withholding tax on capital income on the progression of the German income tax. As previous literature shows, even with synthetic income taxation, tax progression was strongest in the middle of the income distribution, and decreased...

The present study calculates variable, cross-sectional as well as longitudinal equivalence scales on the basis of the German 1984-2010 Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) database for West Germany. It follows the "individual variant" for calculating subjective equivalence scales using "life...

Subjective well-being (SWB) is generally argued to rise with relative income. However, direct evidence is scarce on whether and how intensively individuals undertake income comparisons, to whom they relate, and what they perceive their relative income to be. In this paper, novel data with direct...

We develop a three-country, stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model to study the effects of changes in both personal and functional income distribution on national current account balances. Each country has a household sector and a non-household (corporate) sector. The household sector is...

When based on perceived rather than on objective income distributions, the Meltzer-Richards hypothesis and the POUM hypothesis work quite well empirically: there exists a positive link between perceived inequality or perceived upward mobility and the extent of redistribution in democratic...

We compare, based on German data, the income of self-employed individuals with and without employees with the income of dependently employed individuals. Our results show that self-employed with employees tend to earn significantly higher incomes than their salaried counterparts, while with the...

Numerous studies analyze gender wage differences focusing on gross hourly wages. The analysis of differences in gross wages allows statements on productivity differences between men and women and to quantify the unexplainable wage gap which is often attributed to discrimination. While there is...

Marriage is one of the most important determinants of economic prosperity, yet most existing theories of inequality ignore the role of the family. This paper documents that the cross-sectional distributions of earnings and wealth display a high degree of concentration, even when disaggregated...