Recently, early investment in the human capital of children from socially disadvantaged environments has attracted a great deal of attention. Programs of such early intervention, aimed at children’s health and well-being, are spreading considerably in the US and are currently being tested in...

We find experimental evidence that the decision problem of tax compliance changes if subjects’ declarations are not randomly assessed, but is based on their appearance as captured by pictures of their faces, even if the aggregate audit probability does not change. Some subjects may fear that...

We empirically investigate whether increases in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) budget have an effect on firms’ compliance behavior with securities market rules. Our study uses a dataset on the SEC’s resources and its enforcement actions over a period beginning shortly...

We study deception choices, the self-selection of capable and less capable deceivers and deception detection in a tax compliance experiment. We find large systematic differences between whether subjects are perceived as honest or as dishonest. Taxpayers are seemingly aware of these perceptions....

We study deception choices and deception detection in a tax compliance experiment. We find large systematic differences in individual deception abilities. Tax payers are conscious about their own deception abilities. The empirical outcomes are in line with a theory suggesting that tax payers...

Opponents of work obligations in return for transfer payments argue that workfare can crowd out private sector work, that workfare harms the welfare of the poor and thereby reduces a society’s welfare in general. This paper analyzes these objections against workfare in a discrete optimal...

Motivated by recent disasters, this article analyzes the risk-sharing aspect in a federation. The regions can be hit by a shock leading to losses that occur with an exogenous probability and in a stochastically independent way. The regions can spend effort on self-insurance to reduce the size of...

We consider a lie-catching experiment with 9240 judgements. A set of videotapes shows subjects participating in a tax compliance experiment. The subjects chose whether or not to misreport. Subjects knew that underreporters were chosen for an audit with some probability. An audit led to detection...

Ausgehend von dem Umstand, dass Umverteilung in einem Föderalstaat zwei Dimensionen hat – zum einen die Einkommensumverteilung zwischen reicheren und ärmeren Bevölkerungsteilen und zum anderen die Umverteilung von reicheren zu ärmeren Regionen – analysiert der Aufsatz die Fragen, wie...