There is by now a lot of evidence showing a sharp increase in cross-sectional wage and earnings inequality during the 2000s in Germany. Our study is the first to decompose this cross-sectional variance into its permanent and transitory parts for years beyond 2000. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel on fulltime working individuals for years of 1994 to 2006, we do not find unambiguous empirical ...
Seit das Bundesverfassungsgericht 2005 das Verbot von Studiengebühren aufgehoben hat, haben sieben Bundesländer Studiengebühren von bis zu 500 Euro pro Semester eingeführt. Eine Studie des DIW Berlin zeigt, dass dies zu Ausweichreaktionen der Studienbewerber geführt hat, die zahlenmäßig nur gering ausfallen: Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, ein Studium im Heimatbundesland beginnen zu wollen, sinkt für Studienanfänger ...
We analyze the distribution of market income in Germany in the period 1992 to 2003 on the basis of an integrated dataset that encompasses the whole spectrum of the population, from the very poor to the very rich. We find a modest increase of the Gini coefficient, a substantial drop of median income and a remarkable growth of the income share accruing to the economic elite, which we define as the richest ...
Vor dem Hintergrund der wachsenden Bedeutung der privaten Altersvorsorge gewinnt die private Vermögensbildung im Lebenszyklus in Deutschland seit einigen Jahren auch an wirtschaftspolitischer Relevanz. Eine neue Studie des DIW Berlin zeigt erhebliche Unterschiede in den Vermögensstrukturen zwischen den alten und neuen Bundesländern. Ostdeutsche Haushalte halten einen deutlich geringeren Anteil ihres ...
We analyze the taxation of top personal incomes in Germany on the basis of an integrated data file of individual tax returns and a general household survey for the years 1992 - 2002. The unique feature of this integrated data set is that it includes all taxpayers in the top percentile of the gross income distribution. We show that despite substantial tax base erosion and significant reductions of top ...
In view of rising wage inequality and increasing poverty, the introduction of a legal minimum wage has recently become an important policy issue in Germany. We analyze the distributional effects of the introduction of a nationwide legal minimum wage of € 7.5 per hour on the basis of a microsimulation model which accounts for the complex interactions between individual wages, the tax-benefit system ...