I study tax avoidance along the income distribution based on micro data from the Income and Consumption Survey (EVS) for the year 2013. The richness of the survey concerning income, taxes and expenditures is exploited by modelling the German tax code in terms of the items available in the EVS....

Inflation and earnings growth can push some tax payers into higher brackets in the absence of inflation-indexed schedules. Moreover, inflation may affect the composition of individuals’ income sources. As a result, depending on the relative tax burden of labor and capital, inflation may...

How can tax policy improve financial stability? Recent studies point to large potential stability gains from a reform that eliminates the debt bias in corporate taxation. Such a reform reduces bank leverage. This paper emphasizes a novel, complementary channel: bank risk taking. We model the...

Using information on desired and actual hours of work, we formulate a discrete choice model of constrained labor supply, where involuntary unemployment as well as over- and underemployment are modelled in a theoretically consistent way. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and...

The inheritance tax is often seen as an effective tool to reduce wealth inequality, to raise public budgets if needed, and to increase incentives to work by lowering the tax burden on labour, which is especially high in Germany according to the OECD. The purpose of this paper is therefore to...

One important feature of tax reforms, in particular corporate tax reforms, is the uncertainty surrounding them. Are they going to be permanent or are they likely to be withdrawn by the subsequent government? The expected duration of the reform is important because it affects households' economic...

We estimate the effect of the UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on household mobility using micro data. The UK (until 2014) provided an ideal setting to explore the impact of housing transfer taxes on mobility decisions. This is partly because the stamp duty liability is quite substantial, at least for...

This paper evaluates the temporary VAT reduction invoked by the German government over the third and fourth quarter of 2020 as part of the COVID-19 stimulus package. There is considerable controversy. Critics argue that VAT reductions are ineffective in the presence of lockdown measures in place...

The traditional concept of a strict minimum of nontaxable income equal for all taxpayers embedded in most current income-tax systems is the result of a paradox of fiscal egalitarianism. The paper shows that substituting the traditional notion of a strict minimum of nontaxable income for a scheme...

This paper uses a simple model based on the board game Monopoly to analyze the drivers of house prices and wealth inequality. Simulations show that inequality generally builds up fast even if players have equal starting conditions and house prices are stable; rising house prices imply more...