The German Federal government has allowed some regions (Approved Local Providers) to be solely responsible for the care of long-term unemployed. The remaining regions had to form Joint Local Agencies, where the local social benefit administrations work together with the local public employment...

In January 2005, the German government enacted a substantial reform of the welfare system, the so-called Hartz IV reform. This book evaluates key characteristics of the reform from a microeconometric perspective. It investigates whether a centralized or decentralized organization of welfare...

Introduction -- Background for the Empirical Analyses: Institutional Details and Data -- Centralized versus Decentralized Welfare Administration -- The Employment Effects of an Intensified Use of Benefit Sanctions -- The Effectiveness of Temporary Extra Jobs and Short-Term Training Programs --...

The paper discusses key elements of optimal central bank design and applies its findings to the Eurosystem. A particular focus is on the size of monetary policy committees, the degree of centralization, and the representation of relative economic size in the voting rights of regional (or...