Studie im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie, Bonn 2012 (35 Seiten)

In this contribution we analyze Paul Kirchhof's income tax policy proposal with regard to conflicting goals of tax revenue, distributional effects and efficiency considerations. While effects on labor supply are moderate, the tax policy proposal reduces government budget revenue by 20 billion...

The German tax system is usually considered as one of the most progressive ones in Europe, especially due to its unique mathematical formula of continuously increasing marginal tax rates in the personal income tax. However, other taxes such as indirect or payroll taxes need to be considered as...

The current debt crisis has given rise to a debate about deeper fiscal integration in Europe. The view is widespread that moving towards a ‘fiscal union’ would have a stabilising effect in the event of macroeconomic shocks. In this paper we study the economic effects of introducing...

Many industrial countries are replacing conventional power plants with renewable energy sources. Green energy policies might affect employment in different ways. A policy shift toward a low-carbon green economy may create new and additional "green jobs" in renewable energy sources and...

We assess the effects of U.S. tax policy reforms on inequality by applying a new decomposition method that allows us to disentangle the direct policy effect from the effect of changing market incomes. Over the whole period 1979-2007 the cumulative tax policy effect aggravated income inequality...

Germany continues to play a pioneering role in replacing conventional power plants with renewable energy sources. While this might be beneficial with respect to environmental quality, it also implies increasing electricity prices. The extent to which this is associated with negative impacts on...

Shifting taxes from labor income to consumption is regularly suggested as a measure to induce work incentives. We investigate the effect of increases in the Value Added Tax on labor supply and the income distribution in Germany, which is compensated by a revenue-neutral reduction in...

"Income inequality in Germany has been increasing continuously during the past 20 years. In general, this is understood as an increase in inequality of wages due to changes in bargaining power of employees. However, the role of changing household structure is widely neglected. Societal trends...

This article suggests multidimensional affluence measures for the top of the distribution. In contrast to commonly used top income shares, they allow the analysis of the extent, intensity and breadth of affluence in several dimensions within a common framework. We illustrate this by analysing...