Purpose – Economic theory predicts that unemployment benefits may increase expected income and reduce its volatility, thereby attracting immigrants to countries which implement such programs. This article aims to explore whether and how changes in countries’ unemployment benefit spending...

Purpose – This paper's main purpose is to evaluate immigrants’ demand for social assistance and services and identify the key barriers to social and labor market inclusion of immigrants in the European Union. Design/methodology/approach – An online primary survey of experts from NGOs and...

Summary The aging of the population in Germany has led to growing concerns among politicians about the economic situation of households with children. This is also reflected in the recent tax policy debate on reforming the taxation of families and married couples. The purpose of this paper is...

Summary The economic literature often argues that basic income schemes and low wage subsidies to employees are just special cases of a negative income tax. In this debate, it is ignored that these concepts target different population subgroups. This paper investigates the different target groups...

Abstract Microsimulation models (MSM) and Computable General Equilibrium models (CGE) have both been widely used in policy analysis. The combination of these two model types allows the utilization of the advantages of both types. The aim of this paper is to describe the state-of-the-art in...

Summary A common problem of welfare states consists of a high unemployment risk for low-skilled workers. This is often attributed to a lack of jobs for the low-skilled, but it may as well be caused by a lack of incentives to work. Low-skilled workers are easily substitutable and therefore have...

Summary Ever since the very beginning of the Journal of Economics and Statistics population economics has featured prominently in the Journal. Fertility naturally plays an important role in population economics. However, the level of German fertility has decreased significantly from the 1900s....

Abstract In his contribution Carsten Hefeker points out that most of the official arguments concerning the necessity of the Stability and Growth Pact are not convincing. Nevertheless, a mechanism that credibly avoids excessive debts and deficits is needed in most member states. It would be more...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine ethnicity among highly skilled immigrants to the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines five classic components of ethnicity – country of birth, race, skin color, language, and religion – among persons admitted to legal permanent...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine whether Swedish employers implicitly/automatically hold negative attitudes toward Arab‐Muslims, an ethnic minority group subjected to substantial labor market discrimination in Sweden and, more specifically, associate members of this minority...