This paper describes how German households save and how their saving behavior is linked to public policy, notably pension policy. The analysis is based on a synthetic panel of four cross sections of the German Income and Expenditure Survey ("Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichproben," EVS,1978,...

We analyse life-cycle saving decisions when households use simple heuristics, or rules of thumb, rather than solve the underlying intertemporal optimization problem. We simulate life-cycle saving decisions using three simple rules and compute utility losses relative to the solution of the...

Das Hartz-IV-Gesetz führte zu einer weit reichenden Reform der sozialen Sicherung in Deutschland. Neben den erwarteten Einkommensverlusten bei Arbeitslosenhilfeempfängern führt diese Reform aber auch zu weit weniger beachteten Ausweitungen von Transfers, denn neben ehemaligen Empfängern von...

This paper analyses the effects of a social assistance reform in Germany. In contrast to studies which are based on microsimulation methods we use a computable general equilibrium model which incorporates a discrete choice model of labour supply to simulate a variety of reform scenarios. The...

Using information on family background, we estimate returns to education, allowing for the heterogeneity of returns. In order to control for the unobserved heterogeneity shared by family members, we construct a siblings sample and employ family fixed-effects and family correlated random-effects...

Labor market participation rates of West German females have risen during the last decades, whereas participation rates of males have declined or remained stable. Nevertheless, differences in aggregate gender specific participation rates remain. The purpose of this paper is to compare life cycle...

We estimate the effects of the reform of the German Unemployment Insurance that replaced the wage related Unemployment Assistance with an income maintenance program and stronger means testing. We model the tax-benefit system and use the Socio-Economic Panel. We estimate a discrete labour supply...

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...

Based on social security data, this paper analyzes wage trends for full employed males by estimating (censored) quantile regressions as functions of age, cohort, education, and year. We test whether a parsimonious specification separating life cycle effects from macroeconomic effects can...

The book analyzes the German welfare state. It starts from a theoretical perspective and then develops changes in social security, public health care, and unemployment insurance.