The compensation of Nazi Germany's forced labourers: Demographic findings and political implications

The debate on financial compensation for former forced labourers in Nazi Germany has raised the question of how many victims are still alive and eligible for compensation. Historical research has so far focused on qualitative aspects of the forced labour system. There are at best ad hoc estimates even for the number of foreign labourers in Nazi Germany during the war. We combine Nazi statistics with post-war demographic data for 20 countries to estimate the number of victims still alive. We then compare our estimates of survivors in mid-2000 with the numbers compensated under the German compensation settlement of July 2000. Although all parties involved in the settlement say that the compensation should benefit those victim groups most discriminated against in Nazi Germany, we find that the actual distribution of compensation payments is strongly influenced by bargaining power and political preferences.     

(Un)Verst?ndlichkeit des Steuerrechts und Nachfrage nach Steuerberatungsdienstleistungen: Ein Experiment

Although increasing the understandability of tax law is a popular postulation, the consequences for individual decisions and the distribution of the tax burdens are far from clear. For this reason, the effects on the demand for tax advice are analyzed in an experimental setting: the participants had to rank pension plans while the understandability of the tax system was modified. We show that an increasing understandability of tax law significantly decreases the willingness to pay for tax advice and that this relationship is moderated by the individuals?? level of education. In fact, in our experiment only individuals with a high education level benefit from the improved understandability of tax law.     

Dynamic pricing with strategic customers

This paper provides an overview of the literature on dynamic pricing with strategic customers. In the past, research on dynamic pricing was mostly concerned with optimally pricing products over time in a market with myopic customers. In recent years, the consideration of strategic customers, who can delay a purchase to take advantage of a future discount, has dramatically increased. This paper’s main contribution is the development of a comprehensive classification scheme to structure the field of research and, based upon this, a systematic overview of all relevant papers. We then present in detail the various aspects considered in the literature together with their motivation from industry and state the major findings of the most relevant papers. Further attention is given to important problem extensions proposed in the literature that have been considered in only a few papers and are usually motivated by specific practical applications. Finally, promising directions for future research are indicated.