Externe referierte Aufsätze

Evaluierung von Wettbewerbsmodellen in der Regionalpolitik: das Regionalprogramm in Schleswig-Holstein

Immigrants in the UK and in West Germany: Relative Income Positions, Income Portfolio, and Redistribution Effects

Based on data from the BHPS and the SOEP, we analyse the economic performance of various ethnic groups in the UK and West Germany, as well as the effects of income redistribution on these populations. Taking the indigenous population of each country as the reference category, we find that, as a whole, the non-indigenous population in the UK fares much better than the immigrant population in Germany. ...

Der Einfluß von Imputed Rent auf die personelle Einkommensverteilung

Die vorliegende Untersuchung befaßt sich mit alternativen Verfahren zur Berücksichtigung von Einkommensvorteilen aus selbstgenutztem Wohneigentum ("lmputed Rent") und deren Einfluß auf individuelle Einkommen sowie die personelle Einkommensverteilung in Deutschland. Nach einer theoretischen Darstellung der Verfahren und ihrer jeweiligen Vor- und Nachteile werden diese mit Hilfe der Mikrodaten des Sozio-oekonomischen ...

Take It or Leave It: (Non-)Take-Up Behavior of Social Assistance in Germany

Analyzing the under-consumption of benefits in the German means-tested Social Assistance program using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study we confirm recent high estimates of a non-take-up rate of more than 60 percent. In light of likely measurement errors in income and in our simulation of household needs, we provide a range of estimates yielding useful boundaries for the non-take-up rate. ...

A Comparison of Alternative Measures of Economic Well-Being for Germany and the United States

This paper, using six waves of data (1984-89) from the United States Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), compares economic well-being using single year income, multi-year income, and wealth as measures. We find inequality to be greater in the United States than in Germany regardless of the measure used. However, the relative degree of inequality varies ...

Der Sozialhilfebezug von Zuwanderern in Westdeutschland

Fiscal Decentralisation and Economic Growth in High-Income OECD Countries

Among the majority of high-income OECD countries, the degree of fiscal decentralisation has converged over the last 30 years towards an intermediate level. The theoretical arguments for and against fiscal decentralisation point to explanations for this tendency, because both extreme decentralisation and extreme centralisation are associated with disadvantages for economic growth. Hence, the observed ...

Kapitaldeckung für die GKV? Zur Berechnung der finanziellen Auswirkungen eines Umstiegs vom Umlage- auf das Kapitaldeckungssystem

This paper presents the financial effects of a transition from the pay-as-you-go to a capital funded health insurance system in Germany. The focus of the following article will be on the financial need in different settings which are given by the difference of the spending for health care and the insurance contributions with an upper limit of 15% of the underlying assessment basis. Calculations made ...

The Balassa-Samuelson Effect in Central and Eastern Europe: Myth or Reality?

This paper studies the Balassa-Samuelson effect in nine Central and East European countries. Using panel cointegration techniques, we find that the productivity growth differential in the open sector leads to inflation in non-tradable goods. Because of the low share of non-tradables and the high share of food items in addition to regulated prices, the consumer price index is misleading when analyzing ...

OPEC's Optimal Crude Oil Price

In March 2000, OPEC decided to stabilise oil prices within a range of 22-28 US-Dollar/barrel of crude oil. Such an oil-price-level is far beyond the short and long run marginal costs of oil production, beyond even that in regions with particularly high costs. Nevertheless, OPEC may achieve its goal if world demand for oil increases substantially in the future and oil resources outside the OPEC are ...

Wehr- und Zivildienst in Deutschland: Wer dient, wer nicht?

Portuguese Migrants in the German Labor Market: Selection and Performance

The labor market performance of Portuguese workers in Germany is analyzed in this article. While previous work has compared wages and characteristics of migrants to natives only, this study also matches the data set with an equivalent survey from the sending country. The findings show that Portuguese migrants as a whole are negatively selected, with the exception of blue-collar workers, the largest ...

Long-term Electricity Demand in China: From Quantitative to Qualitative Growth?

This paper develops scenarios of electricity demand in China until 2010, at a national, a sectoral and a regional level. It takes into account the recent macroeconomic downturn in the Chinese economy and the potential effects of deregulation and price increases in the power sector. The medium-growth scenario hints at a gross electricity demand of 1500 TWh in 2010; should the structural change from ...

Tax Competition and the Choice of Tax Structure in a Majority Voting Model

This note studies the choice of tax structure in a majority voting model with tax competition. Regions may tax mobile capital or immobile labor. Individuals differ with respect to their relative endowments of labor and capital. Even though a lump sum tax is available, the equilibrium capital tax in a jurisdiction may be positive. In a symmetric equilibrium, this will be true if the median capital endowment ...

A Note on Regional Convergence within the EU

A recently published article suggested that factor prices within the EU converged between 1980 and 1992 but diverged between 1992 and 1994. However, these findings largely reflect inflation differentials and exchange rate adjustments. Markov chain analysis on the basis of an alternative income aggregate, GDP per capita measured in Purchasing Power Standards, leads to different results: Convergence ...

Auswirkungen und Perspektiven der Ökologischen Steuerreform in Deutschland: eine modellgestützte Analyse

A first systematic, model-based analysis of the environmental fiscal reform in Germany is undertaken with an econometric model and an empirical general equilibrium model. It indicates moderate but slightly positive effects on employment, energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The influence on economic growth is very low; employment is growing slightly, while energy consumption and CO2 emissions are ...

To What Extent Do Fiscal Regimes Equalize Opportunities for Income Acquisition among Citizens?

This paper employs the theory of equality of opportunity, described in Roemer's book (Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press, 1998), to compute the extent to which tax-and-transfer regimes in 11 countries equalize opportunities among citizens for income acquisition. Roughly speaking, equality of opportunity for incomes has been achieved in a country when it is the case that the distributions ...

The Income of Socialist Upper Classes during the Transition to Capitalism: Evidence from Longitudinal East German Data

We use data from the East German sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to examine the incomes of privileged individuals during the transition from socialism to capitalism. The standard measure of elite status is party membership, but this measure is likely to be inaccurate. Instead we identify the upperclass by the ownership of a telephone before the fall of the Berlin Wall. We find that ...

Das Verhalten von Interviewern: Darstellung und ausgewählte Analysen am Beispiel des "Interviewerpanels" des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels

Eine Strategie zur Kontrolle von Längsschnittgewichtungen in Panelerhebungen: das Beispiel des Sozio-Oekonomischen Panels (SOEP)