A model is presented for simulating the tax burden on highly skilled manpower. The effective average tax rate, defined as the relative wedge between employment costs and disposable income, is computed. Income and payroll taxes and social security contributions not yielding an equivalent benefit...

Many welfare schemes discourage low skilled individuals from working. In the same time, there is widespread support for the welfare state among the highly educated. We suggest a model which explains these seemingly contrasting observations. In our approach, intergenerational social mobility is...

When grades lose their informative value because the percentage of students receiving the best grade rises without any corresponding increase in ability, this is called grade inflation. Conventional wisdom says that such grade inflation is unavoidable since it is essentially costless to award...

We present a modified citizen-candidate model where the implemented policy arises from a compromise between the government and an unelected external power. We show that the two-candidate equilibria of this model differ significantly from the original: however small the cost of candidacy, the...

This paper studies the determinants of academic success using a unique administrative data set of a German university. We show that high school grades are strongly associated with both graduation probabilities and final grades, whereas variables measuring social origin or income have only a...

This dissertation contains economic microanalyses of voting, regulation and higher education. It is about individual decisions, institutions, and the incentives the latter create. Three chapters of this dissertation are based on empirical results, whereas one chapter is a purely theoretical...

The thesis „Everyday Decision Making: A Theoretical and Empirical Study“ analyzes the individuals' decision-making and the role of institutions in creating incentives and influencing individuals' choices. The first part is descriptive and theoretical and deeply rooted in behavioral public...

The thesis “Student Performance in Higher Education: Ability, Class Attendance, Mobility and the Bologna Process” empirically analyzes determinants of students’ success at university. Administrative student data as well as survey data collected at Göttingen University, Germany are used....