ifo Schnelldienst 04/2007 Sonderausgabe "Reformkonzepte zur Erhöhung der Beschäftigung im Niedriglohnbereich"

After the Ifo Institute introduced its study on Activating Social Welfare in May 2002, a discussion was launched in Germany, which has constantly widened, on how a welfare-to-work policy could assist the low-wage sector. At the beginning of the discussion in 2002, reactions came from the Hartz Commission, the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, and the German Council of Economic Advisors. The Magdeburg alternative was developed; attention has returned to the old concepts of a negative income tax or guaranteed minimum income (which had been discussed in the 1990s especially by sociologists); the IZA proposed a general work obligation for social welfare recipients (workfare); and economists in Kiel presented the idea of a hiring voucher. In this issue of ifo Schnelldienst an attempt is made to order the variety of proposals that have been presented. The relevant authors of these proposals were asked to present their ideas in brief form for this ifo Schnelldienst. Zu diesem Zweck wurden einige der relevanten Autoren gebeten, ihre Vorstellungen in knapper Form für den ifo Schnelldienst darzulegen.