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Research Project
In this study, we analyze a reform to better balance income taxation, social contributions and means-tested social benefits. In order to relieve low-wage earners and middle classes, the employee contributions to social security are to be integrated into the personal income tax and the top income tax rates are to be increased. In addition, families with low and middle income are to be relieved and...
Completed Project| Public Economics
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DIW Applied Micro Seminar
Abstract: I derive an optimal benefit-based corporate tax rate formula as a function of the public input elasticity of profits and the (net of) tax elasticity of profits. I argue that the existence of the corporate income tax should be justified by the benefit-based view of taxation: firms should pay tax according to the benefits they receive from the use of the public input. I argue that...
28.02.2020| Simon Naitram, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill
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DIW Weekly Report 41/42 / 2020
Two traditional options for reforming Ehegattensplitting, the joint taxation of married couples with full income splitting, are de facto income splitting (Realsplitting) or individual taxation with a transferable personal allowance. However, these proposals do not significantly reduce the marginal tax burden on the secondary earner’s income and therefore only minimally encourage married women to participate ...
2020| Stefan Bach, Björn Fischer, Peter Haan, Katharina Wrohlich
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Refereed essays Web of Science
While in January 2012, Denmark increased the long-standing tax on sugary soft drinks, the tax was cut byhalf in July 2013 and then completely repealed in January 2014. In this study, we examine whetherincreases and cuts of the soft drink tax lead to similar over- or under-shifting to prices and to similardemand responses. We use longitudinal scanner data of 1,282 Danish households to estimate within-product ...
In:
Economics and Human Biology
37 (2020), 100864, 10 S.
| Renke Schmacker, Sinne Smed
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Refereed essays Web of Science
We examine the effect of local business taxation and local public good and service (PIGS) provision on the number and spatial distribution of new firms. Testing ground is Germany and we rely on the universe of firm foundations between 1998 and 2006. Methodologically, we estimate fixed effects poisson models coupled with a control function approach. The results suggest that a 1%-decrease in the business ...
In:
Regional Science & Urban Economics
83 (2020), 103525, 21 S.
| Nadine Riedel, Martin Simmler, Christian Wittrock
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Diskussionspapiere 1881 / 2020
“Sin taxes” are high on the political agenda in the global fight against obesity. Ac- cording to theory, they are welfare improving if consumers with low self-control are at least as price responsive as consumers with high self-control, even in the absence of ex- ternalities. In this paper, we investigate if consumers with low and high self-control react differently to sin tax variation. For identification, ...
2020| Renke Schmacker, Sinne Smed
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Berlin Lunchtime Meeting
Sarah Perret, OECD, will present findings from a recent report on The Role and Design of Net Wealth Taxes in the OECD. The presentation will give an overview of the cases for and against net wealth taxes, as well as describe how wealth taxes have been designed in practice in the OECD countries that currently have or historically had net wealth taxes. Inheritance taxes, which constitute an...
28.11.2019| Sarah Perret, Stefan Bach
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DIW Applied Micro Seminar
Abstract: We study how attitudes to inheritance taxation are influenced by information about the role of inherited wealth in society. Using a randomized experiment in a register-linked Swedish survey, we find that informing individuals about the large aggregate importance of inherited wealth and its link to inequality of opportunity significantly increases the support for inheritance taxation. The...
25.10.2019| Daniel Waldenström, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
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Weekly Report
by Stefan Bach, Hermann Buslei, Michelle Harnisch and Niklas Isaak
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 ...
28.03.2019| Stefan Bach, Hermann Buslei
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DIW Weekly Report 46/47/48 / 2019
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 ...
2019| Stefan Bach