Public Economics Department Research Projects

A regionally differentiated climate dividend in Germany

Experiences with the regionally differentiated climate dividend in Austria in terms of effectiveness, acceptance and feasibility in the administration. Contribution of a regionally differentiated climate dividend to the acceptance of climate policy (social compatibility and efficiency) Transferability of the Austrian concept and experiences with implementation to Germany.

An empirical analysis of non-take up of social assistance for the elderly

The aim of the research project was to non-take-up of social assistance for the elderly. The analysis is based on the Socio-economic Panel (SOEP). Using a microsimulation model (STSM) developed at DIW Berlin, it was determined on the basis of survey data from the previous year (including income and property information, household context, living situation, health situation, household equipment)...

Career penalties of long term-care provision

It is the aim of the project to analyze the labor market consequences of informal care provision. For the identification we follow the literature on childcare penalties (see Kleven et al. 2019) to quantify the short- and long-run career costs of childcare. Rellstab et al. (2020) for the Netherlands and Halla et al. (2021) for Austria have applied this framework to estimate the career effects for...

DFG Research Unit "Labour Market Transformation: Labor Scarcity, Skill Mismatch, and Policy" TP 7 "Increasing the labour supply of older workers"

Labor shortages and skills mismatches pose significant challenges for Germany and other advanced economies, which are further exacerbated by the retirement of the baby boomer generation, the digital transformation and the ecological transformation of the economy. These developments are fundamentally changing labor demand, task structures and skill requirements, leading to a growing mismatch...

Distribution effects and incentive effects of coordinated climate and social policy

The aim of this research project is the development and empirical evaluation of climate and social policy instruments, which on the one hand contribute to achieving climate neutrality by 2045, and on the other hand could be implemented in a socially compatible way. The focus is on empirical analysis of the distribution and incentive effects including their interactions which are evaluated by...

Economic Insights: Transfer and Capacity Building

The INSIGHTS project  aims to support and promote the communication of research and to contribute to its transfer to the public. INSIGHTS is funded by the Leibniz Gemeinschaft. INSIGHTS has two main pillars, a platform of exchange between researchers, policymakers, the media, and the public, and the provision of professional guidance and formal training on how to interact with the public and...

Employment of older individuals

Employment of women

Female labor supply and fertility in times of demographic change (FemLab)

Financing basic income

Scenarios for financing an unconditional basic income are being developed in the project. Furthermore, the revenue and distribution effects of basic income and financing options are analyzed.

Gender gaps in the labour market

This project investigates the underlying causes of gender gaps in the labor market, emphasizing skill mismatches, task divisions, social norms, and implicit gender biases. By employing quasi- and survey-experimental methods with data from Germany and OECD countries, the research examines policies like parental leave and public child care. It explores the effects of these factors on skill...

GENELLI

Gender inequality remains a pressing issue in our society. Women are underrepresented in many decision-making positions and the gender pay gap remains at 16%. Whether or how language contributes to forming and transporting gender stereotypes has sparked intense scientific and public debate. In German, masculine role nouns are still often used in a generic sense to address people of unknown gender ...

Junior research group “Time policy – how can social policy help to manage critical phases over the life course?”

The research group is concerned with time policy as one element of social policy. Time policy allows individuals and households to cope with time conflicts during critical phases in their employment biographies. Time policy includes measures and benefits that enable employees to use their time resources according to their preferences, irrespective of their income. We identify critical phases in...

Long term care and migration

Organizing long-term care (LTC) is one of the most pressing challenges for the coming years, both societally and politically. Across OECD countries, the proportion of individuals aged 80 and above will increase from an average of nearly five to almost ten percent of the population by 2050 (OECD, 2020). This rapid aging will have sizable implications for the demand and provision of LTC. The issue...

Populism and Narratives of Social Mobility

The rise of populism continues to shake numerous Western democracies, often leading to exclusionary or authoritarian tendencies (Mudde, 2004). This is evident in events such as the US Capitol storming in January 2021 and the attempted coup in Germany in December 2022. The destabilizing threat to democratic institutions across the EU and the US underscores the importance of understanding populism’s...

Role model Austria - What lessons can be learned for the design of old-age provision in Germany?

In the project, the differences between the German and Austrian pension systems are to be systematized and analyzed on the basis of administrative microdata and dynamic simulation models. In contrast to the previous use of stylized biographies or empirical averages, the added value of the project lies in the analysis based on microdata as well as in the differentiated consideration of individual...

SFB/Transregio 190: Rationality and Competition: The Economic Performance of Individuals and Firms Project A02: Biased beliefs in dynamic decisions: Extensions to policy and communication

The Collaborative Research Center Transregio “Rationality and Competition” combines the research programs of behavioral and neoclassical economists to study applied economic questions that are of high policy relevance. The focus CRC TRR 190 is on the economic behavior and performance of individuals and firms: How do systematic biases in expectations, decision processes, and preferences affect the...

The role of inherited wealth for wealth inequality in Germany

In this project, a top-corrected wealth distribution is estimated on the basis of the inheritance tax statistics and the SOEP. We analyze the concentration of wealth, the portfolios of the wealthy, the importance of inherited wealth, the gender inheritance gap and the gender wealth gap as well as reactions to inheritance taxation.

Wealth Tax The Left.

This research project examines the revenue and distributional effects of a wealth tax on households in Germany. Various scenarios with progressive tax rates and high personal allowances are analyzed, including special provisions for business assets, real estate, and retirement savings. The simulation calculations are based on microdata from the PHF/HFCS and SOEP, supplemented by additional...

Labor Market and Welfare Effects of Family Policy – A Microsimulation Study für Germany

The aim of this research project was to empirically analyze the incentive as well as welfare effects of different family policy reforms that have been discussed in the past years. The starting point for this study is a detailed analysis of the current system of family support and its effects on household labor supply and welfare. The challenge in this empirical analysis is the adequate modelling...