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...

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...

Eine theoretische Analyse beleuchtet die strategische Investitionsentscheidung zweier Länder in die Ausbildung ihrer Abiturienten im Kontext von freier Studienortwahl und gebührenfreiem Studium. Die freie Inanspruchnahme des Bildungsangebots durch Abiturienten anderer Länder verursacht eine...

The direct democratic choice of an examination standard, i.e., a performance level required to graduate, is evaluated against a utilitarian welfare function. It is shown that the median preferred standard is inefficiently low if the marginal cost of reaching a higher performance reacts more...

We examine subsidies for health care when consumers have present-biased preferences, which lead them to underestimate the effect of today s consumption on future health. We compare immediate subsidies paid for health-conscious consumption and future subsidies rewarding a good health outcome. We...

In this paper, citizens vote in order to influence the election outcome and in order to signal their unobserved characteristics to others. The model is one of rational voting and generates the following predictions: (i) The paradox of not voting does not arise, because the benefi t of voting...

Der Bildungsföderalismus gerät immer wieder in die Kritik. Er bringe im internationalen Vergleich schlechte Schülerleistungen hervor. Die Schulabschlüsse in den einzelnen Bundesländern seien nicht vergleichbar, was die Mobilität von Familien mit schulpflichtigen Kindern erschwere....

Zusammenfassung Als mögliche Ausgestaltung einer Steuerautonomie der Länder wird ein Zuschlagsmodell bei der Einkommensteuer diskutiert. Anhand der tatsächlichen Aufkommenszahlen der letzten Jahre berechnete Projektionen zeigen, dass auch bei einer moderaten Reform entweder erhebliche...

A multi-jurisdictional system is thought to improve, through yardstick competition, accountability. At the same time equalization programs, a common feature of multijurisdictional systems, are thought to be a prerequisite for both efficiency of the internal market and the equity objective of the...