We characterize the optimal linear tax on capital in an Overlapping Generations model with two period lived households facing uninsurable idiosyncratic labor income risk. The Ramsey government internalizes the general equilibrium feedback of private precautionary saving. For logarithmic utility...

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) within multinational groups leads to a rising number of intragroup cross-border transactions. At the same time, transactions and the organisational structures of affiliated groups become more and more specific and, thus, less...

We investigate the misappropriation of R&D subsidies and evaluate its consequences for policy effectiveness. Using Chinese firm-level data for 2001-2011, we identify that 42% of grantees misused R&D subsidies, accounting for 53% of total R&D subsidies. Misappropriation leads to a substantial...

Die gewählte Rechtsform eines Unternehmens bestimmt auch nach (und gerade trotz) der Steuerreformen der letzten Jahre in erheblichem Ausmaß die Steuerbelastung deutscher Unternehmen. Daher hat sich auch die steuerwissenschaftliche Literatur in zahlreichen Beiträgen der Fragestellung nach der...

This paper asks whether the gap in subjective happiness between spouses matters per se, i.e. whether it predicts divorce. We use three panel databases to explore this question. Controlling for the level of life satisfaction of spouses, we find that a higher satisfaction gap, even in the first...

In this paper we estimate the effects of an unconditional basic income on labor supply and income distribution with a special focus on the incentives to work in the family context. An unconditional basic income guarantees every citizen a minimum income without any means-testing. We simulate a...

Although demographic change leaves pay-as-you-go pension systems unsustainable, reforms, such as a higher pension age, are highly unpopular. This contribution looks into the role of intrinsic motivation as a driver for pension reform acceptance. Theoretical reasoning suggests that this driver...

This paper reviews the literature on distributional effects of energy and carbon taxation with focus on microsimulation models. Most studies find that direct energy and carbon taxation tends to be regressive. Regressive effects occur mostly with respect to taxation of electricity or space...

The elasticity of taxable income (ETI) is often interpreted as a sufficient statistic to assess the welfare costs of taxation. Building on the conceptual framework of Chetty (2009), we show that this assertion does no longer hold for tax systems with deduction possibilities if (i) deductions...

We assess the effects of U.S. tax policy reforms on inequality by applying a new decomposition method allowing us to disentangle the policy effect from changing market incomes. Over the period 1979-2007, the cumulative policy effect aggravated inequality by increasing the income share of the top...