This paper analyzes the impact of a statutory minimum wage on employment, wage inequality, public expenditures, and aggregate income in the low-wage sector for two scenarios: a competitive labor market and a monopsonistic labor market. Using data from the 2006 wave of the German Socio-Economic...

This paper fills a gap in the literature by focusing on the degree of self-financing of tax cuts in a New Keynesian two-country model. We find that the degree of self-financing of income tax cuts is negative on impact, but it quickly becomes positive. The open-economy dimension does not matter...

Deterrence can boost compliance with tax authorities or undermine it depending on whether taxpayers cope with the threat of taxation through thinking morally, or feeling oppressed, or taking control of the tax they pay. When feeling oppressed dominates thinking morally in response to deterrence,...

This paper analyzes the relationship between aid and domestic tax revenues using a more recent and comprehensive data set covering 118 countries for the period 1980-2009. Overall, our results support earlier findings of a negative association between net official development assistance (ODA) and...

In Germany economic experts and politicians are proposing a fundamental reform of the health-care system by which the current wage-dependent contributions are replaced by flat-rate insurance premiums. One major reason behind this proposal is the wish to avoid the distortion effects caused by the...

In our tax evasion experiment each participant earns his income by solving intertemporal allocation tasks. The resulting income has to be declared in a tax return which is randomly verified. If tax evasion is detected, the subject is punished by a fixed penalty capturing the fact that (in...

Over the past decade, a number of countries have shifted to single-rate tax systems with broader bases and lower rates. In the U.S., there continues to be discussion of the merits of a consumption tax, and of base-broadening reforms to the income tax system. The objective of this paper is to...

Later this year, the European Commission has to submit a report to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament with its views on tobacco tax policy in the EU. A 2004 publication issued by the Commission expressed the beliefs that tobacco consumption should be controlled by increasing...

The paper presents an axiomatic restatement of the standard approach to nonlinear income taxation. It assumes a finite number of taxpayers rather than an uncountable infinity. Analytical tools are developed which facilitate proving the existence of tax schedules that are continuous,...

Fifty-eight million people - approximately the population of the UK - 'drink too much' in the European Union. Heavy drinking may lead to violent behavior, causes accidents and impairs health. The external costs of harmful alcohol use exceed alcohol excise duty collections by a wide margin. In...