The tax and fiscal reforms headed by German finance minister Matthias Erzberger in 1919 and 1920 fundamentally reshaped German public finances. The total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP, or tax-to-GDP ratio, doubled and increased continually until the end of World War II. Since the 1950s, the tax-to-GDP ratio has remained between 22 and 24 percent of GDP most of the time. West Germany’s economic ...
The desire to avoid the shame of being dependent on government aid is often cited as a cause of low welfare take-up rates. In contrast to other obstacles, such as transaction costs or a lack of information, little empirical research has been conducted on how stigma affects social benefits take-up. In this Weekly Report, a controlled laboratory experiment is presented whose results support the following ...
In many European countries, there is a substantial gender pension gap. Yet, these gaps vary strongly across countries. This cross-national study examines to what extent institutional and labor market-specific factors correlate with gender pension gaps. The findings show that the gender pension gap tends to be larger in countries with larger gender-specific differences in the employment or part-time ...
The ecological tax reform that Germany implemented between 1999 and 2003 increased energy tax rates—especially on gasoline and diesel. Today, the ecological tax hikes yield an annual revenue of around 20 billion euros or 0.6 percent of GDP. The money is used to finance a higher federal grant to the public pension scheme. Calculations based on a pension simulation model show that the contribution rate ...
Paid and unpaid work are still distributed very unequally between men and women in Germany. Regardless of time restrictions imposed by gainful employment, there is a gender- specific gap in time spent on housework and child care (gender care gap). The total volume of paid and unpaid work on weekdays is roughly the same for men and women (approx. 11 hours), although women perform more unpaid and men ...
The construction volume this year will reach a value of just under euro 230 billion _ a drop as compared to 2004 of close to 3%. At approximately 1.5%, the price increase should turn out somewhat higher than the previous year, which means the real construction volume will thus shrink by a good 4%. While the development during the first six months of this year was clearly on the decline, improved demand ...
Intensive discussion is now underway on the tax reform concept put forward by Paul Kirchhof. Analyses based on extrapolations of individual tax return data from the income tax statistics show that ending the main tax concessions and allowances would not be enough to compensate for the loss of revenue from lowering the top rate of tax to 25%. Moreover, the importance of simplifying the tax system is ...
A comparison based on German and French micro data shows that the redistributive effects of family support provided in the form of tax relief are stronger in Germany than in France. This is true both for redistribution between households of different sizes and for redistribution between households with different incomes. The average burden on single individuals without children compared to other types ...
