We examine the interplay between changes in the functional distribution of income and the distribution of market income among households. We use micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel as well as macro data from the German Federal Statistical Office from 2002 to 2008. We categorize and...

In this paper, we measure the effect of changing capital income shares upon inequality of gross household income. Using EU-SILC data covering 17 EU countries from 2005 to 2011 we find that capital income shares are positively associated with the concentration of gross household income. Moreover,...

Using annual data for 21 OECD countries we provide evidence of remarkable mispricing of sovereign bonds for the so-called GIIPS countries before the start of the financial crisis. Our results also qualify the view of pronounced overpricing in the crisis. In detail, we find: (i) Since the 1980s...

We demonstrate that upward-looking comparisons induce "keeping up with the richer Joneses"-behavior. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we estimate the effect of reference consumption, defined as the consumption level of all households who are perceived to be richer, on household...

Der Migrationsstrom eines Landes in ein anderes Land hängt positiv von den bereits vor Ort befindlichen Migranten gleicher Nationalität (bzw. gleicher Herkunft) ab. Dieser Effekt wird in der Literatur häufig als Netzwerkeffekt bezeichnet. Wir zeigen in diesem Beitrag anhand der Migration nach...

Forced-Distribution-Systems (FDS) have many indisputable benefits (such as identification of high potential and low performers or incentive effects to exert higher efforts). However, many companies take a critical stance toward FDS, one of the main reasons being the agents' incentive to execute...

Under a deadweight loss of tax and transfer, there is tension between the optimal policy choices of a Rawlsian social planner and a utilitarian social planner. However, when with a weight greater than a certain critical value the individuals' utility functions incorporate distaste for low...