Lea Immel prepared this study while she was working at the Research Group Taxation and Fiscal Policy at the ifo Institute. The study was completed in September 2020 and accepted as doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It consists of four distinct empirical...

The demographic problems in developed countries are getting more and more important. Very low fertility rates especially among skilled individuals will soon become relevant for a country's economy. Also of importance is education of children. Since there is an increasing demand for skilled...

We examine the drivers of inequality change in Honduras between 1991-2007, trying to understand why inequality increased in Honduras until 2005, while it was falling in most other Latin American countries. Using annual household surveys, we document first rising inequality between 1991-2005,...

We examine the drivers of inequality change in Honduras between 1991-2007, trying to understand why inequality increased in Honduras until 2005, while it was falling in most other Latin American countries. Using annual household surveys, we document first rising inequality between 1991-2005,...

The minimum wage has been regarded as an important element of public policy for reducing poverty and inequality. Increasing the minimum wage is supposed to raise earnings for millions of low-wage workers and therefore lower earnings inequality. However, there is no consensus in the existing...

Earnings inequality in Great Britain has increased substantially over the last two decades at both the national and regional levels. This paper examines the determinants of regional hourly earnings over the period 1976 to 1995 by estimating regional fixed-effects earnings equations. Using panel...

Earnings inequality in Great Britain has increased substantially over the last two decades at both the national and regional levels. This paper examines the changes that have taken place within both the national and regional distributions of earnings in Great Britain over the period 1976 to...

This paper assesses regional inequality in urban China. It predicts earnings for each worker in multiple provinces, compares provinces of residence and maximum predicted earnings, and estimates predicted relocation gains. It presents a reference comparison for the U.S. in 1940. Only 7.4% of U.S....

Analyses of ethnic and racial wage differentials neglect the fact that minorities cluster in urban and in more deprived areas. This paper estimates ethnic wage differentials by comparing minorities to the majority in the same local labour market and therefore facing similar socio-economic...

In recent decades, the U.S. labor market has become more unequal and polarized: wage differences have widened and middle-income jobs have been replaced by low- and high-income jobs. The rise in inequality and polarization have been more pronounced in large cities. I argue that this can be...