Until 2004, German long-term unemployed received a tax-financed benefit (Arbeitslosenhilfe)which exceeded social assistance for the disabled (Sozialhilfe). This has beenchanged by the recent reform known as “Hartz IV”: Effective from 2005, long-termunemployed on the one hand (who are no more...

Based on a questionnaire survey the paper distinguishes between herdingasset managers who try to be good and non-herding asset managers who try to bebetter than their competitors. It provides evidence for reputational herding anddiscusses herding managers' working effort, preferred sources of...

Zur Bewertung von Investitionsprojekten mit mehrperiodigen Zahlungenk¨onnen die erwarteten Zahlungen mit geeigneten Kapitalkostendiskontiert werden. Die Kapitalkosten werden in der Regel als die erwarteteeinperiodige Rendite der Investition bestimmt, wobei häufigauf Kapitalmarktmodelle wie das...

Increasing costs of most healthcare systems result in (major) financing problemsand thus are the focus of many empirical inquiries. Researchers have found thatmismanagement is often a consequence of misplaced incentives. This paper tries tooutline some cases in which the demand side of...

The rational prodigality argument, which often serves to justify social security,is considered in a second-best tax framework with endogenous labor supply. Rationalprodigality renders the familiar policies time inconsistent. We analyze time consistentpolicies and show that a wage tax suffices to...