Germany is falling behind its peers in adopting new digital technologies and financial services offered by non-bank high-tech startups (e.g., FinTech). Using survey data, we analyze which FinTech services households are likely to adopt. Our results indicate that a household's level of trust and...

This paper proposes a test for the existence and degree of contagious presenteeism and negative externalities in sickness insurance schemes. First, we theoretically decompose moral hazard into shirking and contagious presenteeism behavior and derive testable conditions. Then, we implement the...

This paper proposes a test for the existence and degree of contagious presenteeism and negative externalities in sickness insurance schemes. First, we theoretically decompose moral hazard into shirking and contagious presenteeism behavior and derive testable conditions. Then, we implement the...

This paper proposes a test for the existence and degree of contagious presenteeism and negative externalities in sickness insurance schemes. First, we theoretically decompose moral hazard into shirking and contagious presenteeism behavior and derive testable conditions. Then, we implement the...

Trotz der sozialpolitischen Bedeutung, die der betrieblichen Altersvorsorge (bAV) seit den Rentenreformen der Neunziger- und Zweitausenderjahre zukommt, werden die unvollständige Evidenzlage, Intransparenz und fehlende Datengrundlagen in den letzten Jahren regelmäßig bemängelt. In diesem...

Changes in Dismissal Protection Legislation in Germany have been a subject to ongoing research in the past decade. The majority of these studies, however, has not been able to determine significant effects on job and worker flows in firms affected by the reforms. We estimate the impact of...

In the late nineties, Germany was often seen as a laggard with respect to labor market and welfare state reforms with institutional inertia being reflected in notoriously sluggish employment growth and rising unemployment. Recent years, however, saw a complex sequence of reforms with regard to...

This paper analyses how and to which degree the Danish flexicurity concept and its various elements achieve the renowned Danish miracle by evaluating their unemployment and inequality effects and their complementarities. We develop a microfounded model of searching workers and firms, calibrate...

This article surveys the literature on selection effects in retirement behavior. More specifically, we consider early retirement schemes with actuarially fair adjustments based on average life expectancy. To this end, we recapitulate the theoretical literature on selection effects and resulting...

In view of rising wage and income inequality, the introduction of a legal minimum wage has recently become an important policy issue in Germany. We analyze the distributional effects of a nationwide legal minimum wage of 7.50 € per hour on the basis of a microsimulation model which accounts...