We analyze the employment and income effects of a needs-based minimum benefit system (“Bedarfsorientierte Mindestsicherung”) which has recently been introduced in Austria. The aim of this reform was to reduce poverty as well as to increase work incentives for recipients of social assistance....

This article incorporates tax evasion into an optimum taxation framework with individuals differing in earning abilities and initial wealth. We find that despite the possibility of its evasion a tax on initial wealth should supplement the optimal nonlinear income tax, given a positive...

We analyze the effects of a generalized class of negative consumption externalities (asymmetric and non-atmospheric) on the structure of efficient commodity tax programs. Households are not only concerned about consumption reference levels — that is, they gain utility from “keeping up with...

This paper studies the optimal tax mix (taxes on income and commodities) under asymmetric information in a two-type model, when individuals make relative consumption comparisons. The model includes both positional and nonpositional goods, taking into account the fact that relative concerns...

This paper extends the previous literature on optimal redistributive taxation in the presence of externalities to a multiexternality setting. While taxes on income and on 'clean' commodities are still unaffected by the externalities, which confirms previous results, I find that the existence of...

We study the impact of social learning on the depth of reasoning in an experimental beauty-contest game. Naive advice and observation of others' decisions as two forms of social learning trigger faster convergence to the equilibrium. We find that subjects who receive advice outperform uninformed...

We study the effects of institutions of conflict management like corporatism, trust, civic norms and group membership on economic growth. By employing Schneider and Wagner’s (Kyklos 54:509–532, <CitationRef CitationID="CR25">2001</CitationRef>) model and data from 1990–2011, we show that corporatism has (still) a positive...</citationref>

We compare the influence of endogenous leadership on group's contributions in a public goods game with an exogenously appointed leader and find that groups with voluntary leaders outperform groups with involuntary leaders. The decision to contribute last does not undermine cooperation.