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Taxing inheritances – a way to raise revenues and curb wealth inequality?

In Germany, 200 to 400 billion euros are inherited or donated every year. Inheritances are unevenly distributed, with wealthy households receiving far greater inheritances than poor households, and inheritances and gifts are taxed only lightly compared with earned income. As inequalities are increasing, particularly since the onset of the COVID crisis, and governments are under pressure to find...

Disentangling Covid-19, Economic Mobility, and Containment Policy Shocks

We study the dynamic impact of Covid-19, economic mobility, and containment policy shocks. We use Bayesian panel structural vector autoregressions with daily data for 44 countries, identified through sign and zero restrictions. Incidence and mobility shocks raise cases and deaths significantly for two months. Restrictive policy shocks lower mobility immediately, cases after one week, and deaths after ...

Cohort Profile: Follow-up of a Berlin Aging Study II (Base-II) Subsample as Part of the GendAge Study

Purpose The study ‘Sex- and gender-sensitive prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in older adults in Germany’, the GendAge study, focuses on major risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and on the development of major outcomes from intermediate phenotypes in the context of sex and gender differences. It is based on a follow-up examination of a subsample (older group) of ...

Corruption and Cheating: Evidence from Rural Thailand

This study tests the prediction that perceived corruption reduces ethical behavior. Integrating a standard “cheating” experiment into a broad household survey in rural Thailand, we find tentative support for this prediction: respondents who perceive corruption in state affairs are more likely to cheat and, thus, to fortify the negative consequences of corruption. Interestingly, there is a small group ...

100% Renewable Energy for Germany: Coordinated Expansion Planning Needed

Due to ambitious climate change targets and other energy and industrial policy goals such as the nuclear phase-out, the energy transition in Germany is heading toward a completely renewable energy system. This Weekly Report is the first to describe scenarios for 100 percent renewable energy coverage in Germany and, furthermore, shows it is both possible and realistic. In such a scenario, no more fossil ...

Comparing the Risk Attitudes of Internationally Mobile and Non-Mobile Germans

Optimal Supply Chains and Power Sector Benefits of Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen can help to decarbonize parts of the transportation sector, but its power sectorinteractions are not well understood so far. It may contribute to integrating variable renewable energysources if production is sufficiently flexible in time. Using an open-source co-optimization model of thepower sector and four options for supplying hydrogen at German filling stations, we find a trade-offbetween ...

What Drives Saudi Airstrikes in Yemen? An Empirical Analysis of the Dynamics of Coalition Airstrikes, Houthi Attacks, and the Oil Market

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a foreign military intervention against the Houthi movement, which took over major parts of Yemen. The intervention, which manifests mainly in airstrikes, has attracted widespread controversy in media and politics as well as a large body of (qualitative) academic literature discussing its background and ways to escape it. Complementary to these efforts and connecting ...

Chances and Obstacles to Strengthening the Paris Agreement: The Case of Resource-Rich Countries

Dieses Hintergrund­papier stellt wissen­schaft­liche Erkennt­nisse vor, die sich mit den grund­legenden Heraus­forderungen ressourcen­reicher Länder bei der Dekar­bo­nisierung ihrer Wirt­schaft beschäftigen. Es zeigt sich eine eher skeptische Ein­schät­zung des aktuellen Klima­ambitions­niveaus vieler dieser Länder sowie der Erwartungen hinsichtlich der Erreichung nicht nur der aktuellen NDCs, sondern ...

The new SOEP Annual Report is online!

The 2020 SOEP Annual Report presents an overview of all our activities in the last year. It shines a spotlight on the SOEP’s new projects, partners, and services; Kantar's fieldwork for the various SOEP samples; and the process of data preparation and distribution. The report is available online free of charge. We would also be happy to send you a hard copy on request (soepmail@diw.de).