This paper examines how local politics affects public fund allocations. It uses the context of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India which was introduced by the Indian National Congress (INC). Using longitudinal data on funds sanctioned and election results from three...

The present economic crisis comes against the background of decades of policy changes that have generally weakened the capacity of social safety nets to offer citizens with adequate resources for financial survival when labour markets fail to do so. Building on data for 24 European Union...

Mit der Einführung von Arbeitslosengeld II wurde auch die behördliche Zuständigkeit für die Grundsicherung einer grundlegenden Reorganisation unterzogen. Während in der überwiegenden Mehrheit der Kommunen in Form der sogenannten Arbeitsgemeinschaften eine Mischverwaltung aus Bundesagentur...

This paper investigates the effectiveness of an intervention that was targeted at a specific group of Dutch Social Assistance (SA) recipients with debt problems. With a large share of the income gains of work resumption were transferred to the creditors, these individuals experienced a strong a...

Die Stellschraube Arbeitszeit ist der in der Fachdebatte am stärksten unterschätzte Ansatzpunkt, um den absehbaren Konsequenzen der demographischen Herausforderungen begegnen zu können. Würden alle Erwerbstätigen im statistischen Durchschnitt Vollzeit arbeiten, was in etwa der heutigen...

Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird die Frage analysiert, ob ein großzügig ausgestalteter Sozialstaat zusätzliche Wanderungsanreize generieren kann, die eine nennenswerte Zuwanderung in das Sozialversicherungssystem zur Folge hat. Darüber hinaus werden verschiedene Politikoptionen zur...

Using a new set of micro evidence from an original survey of 28 transition countries, we show that democracy increases citizens’ support for the market by guaranteeing income redistribution to inequality-averse agents. Our identification strategy relies on the restriction of the sample to...

Policies to promote marriage are controversial, and it is unclear whether they are successful. To analyze such policies, it is essential to distinguish between a marriage that is created by a marriage-promoting policy (marginal marriage) and a marriage that would have been formed even in the...

Two key questions in thinking about the size and growth of the disability insurance program are to what extent it discourages work, and how valuable the insurance is to individuals and families. These questions motivate our paper. We begin by describing the earnings, disposable income and...

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was a UK government cash transfer paid directly to children aged 16-18, in the first two years of post-compulsory full-time education. This paper uses the labour supply effect of EMA to infer the magnitude of the transfer response made by the parent, and so...