This contribution empirically analyses the individual determinants of tax rate preferences. For that purpose we make use of the representative German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) that offers data on the individual attitudes toward progressive, proportional, and regressive taxation. Our...

This paper explores the problem of envy (“sadness at another's good”) from both theological and economic perspectives. The theological analysis helps show why envy is a perennial feature of human existence and an ongoing problem for ordered and flourishing social life. The economic analysis...

Arguably, for many citizens the perceived expected disutility from sanctions is smaller than the monetary gain from tax evasion. Nevertheless most people pay their taxes most of the time. In a lab experiment, we show that the willingness to pay taxes even absent enforcement is indeed pronounced....

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Arbeiten von Jon Elster zum Problem lokalerGerechtigkeit. Das Thema dieser Arbeiten sind Rationierungsentscheidungen. Es geht um die Allokation und Distribution knapper Zuteilungsgüter, also etwa um die Vergabe von Kindergarten- oder Studienplätzen, die Zuweisung...

In der Londoner U-Bahn warnen die Worte „Mind the gap!“ vor der Lücke zwischen Bahn und Bahnsteigkante. Auch die Diskrepanz zwischen Sozialstruktur und Semantik kann zum Stolperstein werden. Wenn Semantiken ihre Passgenauigkeit verlieren und den gesellschaftlichen Diskurs mit Kategorien...

We argue that economics - as the scientific method of analyzing trade-offs - can be helpful (and may even be indispensable) for assessing the trade-off between intergenerational and intragenerational justice. Economic analysis can delineate the opportunity set of politics with respect to the two...

This paper delivers a step toward a naturalistic foundation of the social contract. While mainstream social contract theory is based on an original position model that is defined in an aprioristic way, we endogenize its key elements, i.e., develop them out of the individuals' moral common sense....

In this paper, we examine students' attitudes towards various allocation mechanisms for a scarce resource. For this purpose, we have run a survey among officers of the German military who are enrolled in different courses of study (such as economics) at the University of the German Federal Armed...

In der Londoner U-Bahn warnen die Worte „Mind the gap!“ vor der Lücke zwischen Bahn und Bahnsteigkante. Auch die Diskrepanz zwischen Sozialstruktur und Semantik kann zum Stolperstein werden. Wenn Semantiken ihre Passgenauigkeit verlieren und den gesellschaftlichen Diskurs mit Kategorien...

Gesellschaftstheoretiker wie der Soziologe Niklas Luhmann machen darauf aufmerksam, dass es in der modernen Gesellschaft zu systematischen Diskrepanzen zwischen Semantik und Sozialstruktur kommt. Solche Diskrepanzen – also Fälle, in denen Sozialstruktur und Semantik nicht zueinander passen...