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Research Project
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...
Current Project| Public Economics
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DIW Weekly Report 29 / 2025
As the baby boomer generation enters retirement, the payas- you-go pension system in Germany is under an increasing amount of pressure. Relevant changes, in particular higher contribution rates or lower pension levels, are causing tension between generations: Either the financial burden on the younger generations is increased or the risk of insufficient pensions and old-age poverty for the elderly ...
2025| Stefan Bach, Maximilian Blesch, Annica Gehlen, Johannes Geyer, Peter Haan, Stefan Klotz, Bruno Veltri
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DIW Discussion Papers 2129 / 2025
Mental health and wellbeing are unequally distributed in high-income countries, disadvantaging low-income individuals. Unconditional, regular, and guaranteed cash transfers may help address this inequality by promoting financial security and agency. We conducted a preregistered RCT in Germany, where treated participants received monthly payments of EUR 1,200 for three years. Cash transfers improve ...
2025| Sandra Bohmann, Susann Fiedler, Maximilian Kasy, Jürgen Schupp, Frederik Schwerter
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DIW Weekly Report 12/13 / 2025
The gender pension gap, the difference in pension entitlements between men and women, is 32 percent for 60-yearolds according to data from the German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung). In addition, there is a considerable motherhood pension gap: Statutory pension entitlements for mothers and childless women differ greatly. Pension-related childcare credits, which were introduced in 1986 ...
2025| Peter Haan, Michaela Kreyenfeld, Sarah Schmauk, Tatjana Mika
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DIW Weekly Report 18/19 / 2025
The average gender pay gap in Germany is 16 percent according to the most recent data. On the occasion of the 2025 Equal Pay Day, this Weekly Report using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data shows that considerable differences according to age and level of education are hiding behind this average gap. For example, the gender pay gap increases significantly with age for people of all educational backgrounds ...
2025| Fiona Herrmann, Katharina Wrohlich
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Refereed essays Web of Science
This study explores how gender and age interact in shaping beliefs about fair pay through a factorial survey experiment conducted with German employees. Respondents evaluated hypothetical worker descriptions varying in age, gender, and earnings. While no gender gap in fair earnings was found for the youngest hypothetical workers, a significant gap favoring men emerged with increasing age. This suggests ...
In:
The British Journal of Sociology
76 (2025),1, S. 180-187
| Jule Adriaans, Carsten Sauer, Katharina Wrohlich
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DIW Discussion Papers 2123 / 2025
How does basic income (a regular, unconditional, guaranteed cash transfer) impact labor supply? We show that in search models of the labor market with income effects, this impact is theoretically ambiguous: Employment and job durations might increase or decrease, match surplus might be shifted to workers or employers, and worker surplus might be reallocated between wages and job amenities. We thus ...
2025| Sarah Bernhard, Sandra Bohmann, Susann Fiedler, Maximilian Kasy, Jürgen Schupp, Frederik Schwerter
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DIW Weekly Report 27/28 / 2025
The previous federal government coalition had planned to pay private households a climate dividend to offset rising carbon prices; a payout process was even prepared. However, the climate dividend is nowhere to be seen in the new federal government’s coalition agreement. In the long term, a social compensation mechanism will be important, as prices for fossil and heating fuels will continue to rise ...
2025| Stefan Bach, Rebecca Engelhardt, Lars Felder, Peter Haan, Renke Schmacker
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DIW Discussion Papers 2125 / 2025
This paper examines the gendered impact of divorce on earnings and the role of the social policy context in shaping this relationship. In particular, it focuses on a policy reform enacted in Germany in 2008 that overturned previous ex-spousal support rules. Data come from the administrative records of the German Public Pension Fund. Drawing on a fixed- effects model, we study the behaviour of women ...
2025| Michaela Kreyenfeld, Sarah Schmauk, Katharina Wrohlich, Daniel Brüggmann
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Refereed essays Web of Science
We evaluate German purchase subsidies for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) using data on new vehicle registrations in Germany dur¬ing 2015-2022. We account for confounding time trends and interacting EU-level CO2 standards using neighboring countries as a control group. We find that 40% of BEV and 25% of PHEV registrations were subsidy-induced. The program ...
In:
Environmental & Resource Economics
88 (2025),S. 185–223
| Peter Haan, Adrián Santonja, Aleksandar Zaklan