Publikationen der Abteilung Staat

Stricter Enforcement May Increase Tax Evasion

This paper shows that stricter enforcement may increase tax evasion. Individuals vote on a linear income tax, which is used to finance lump sum transfers. Individuals may evade taxes, but they have to pay fines when caught. Stricter enforcement may make redistributive taxation more attractive to the decisive voter. The tax rate and transfer may rise, which in turn may increase tax evasion. The paper ...

The Impact of Ageing on Hospital Care and Long-Term Care: The Example of Germany

Background: In the next few decades the population in all EU-countries will age rapidly. This could have a major impact on the health care sector. This study analyses the effect of population ageing on utilisation in two key sectors of the health care system, namely hospital care and long-term care in Germany, up to 2020 with an outlook to 2050. Methods: Two population scenarios, one with constant, ...

Auswirkungen und Perspektiven der Ökologischen Steuerreform in Deutschland: eine modellgestützte Analyse

A first systematic, model-based analysis of the environmental fiscal reform in Germany is undertaken with an econometric model and an empirical general equilibrium model. It indicates moderate but slightly positive effects on employment, energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The influence on economic growth is very low; employment is growing slightly, while energy consumption and CO2 emissions are ...

The Political Economy of Intergovernmental Grants

We study the effect of politics on the distribution of intergovernmental grants. We consider a model where local government officials lobby the central government who in turn distributes grants based on the local governments' lobbying efforts. We argue that the marginal costs of lobbying increase with the geographical and "political" distance from the central government capital. Hence, in equilibrium, ...

Tax Competition and the Choice of Tax Structure in a Majority Voting Model

This note studies the choice of tax structure in a majority voting model with tax competition. Regions may tax mobile capital or immobile labor. Individuals differ with respect to their relative endowments of labor and capital. Even though a lump sum tax is available, the equilibrium capital tax in a jurisdiction may be positive. In a symmetric equilibrium, this will be true if the median capital endowment ...

The Effects of Environmental Fiscal Reform in Germany: A Simulation Study

This paper presents the first comprehensive, model-based impact analysis of the German environmental fiscal reform, addressing the effects on CO2 emissions, economic growth, employment, and personal income distribution. Both an econometric input-output model and a dynamic computable general equilibrium model are applied in order to enhance the credibility of our results. The macroeconomic results are ...

Tax Liability-Side Equivalence in Experimental Posted-Offer Markets

In theory, the incidence of a tax should be independent of the side of the market on which it is levied. This principle of liability-side equivalence underlies virtually all theories of tax incidence. Policy discussions, however, tend to place great emphasis on the legal division of tax payments. We use computerized experimental posted-offer markets to test liability-side equivalence. We find that ...

Was kann die Aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland aus der Evaluationsforschung in anderen europäischen Ländern lernen?

Most evaluation studies for Germany's active labor market policy (ALMP) indicate that subsidized employment programs in the public sector (public works programs, "Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahmen") and publicly funded training programs have, on average, no or even negative effects on individual re-employment probabilities. This paper provides possible explanations for the ineffectiveness of these programs, ...

Jurisdiction Size, Political Participation, and the Allocation of Resources

This paper analyzes the effect of population size on politicalparticipation and allocative efficiency. Increasing populationis generally found to reduce political participation. However,since participation is not evenly spread throughout thepopulation, this will have consequences for allocation.Namely, we argue that increasing population size shifts powerto the rich. We discuss the consequences for ...

Männer profitieren mehr vom Merkmal emotionale Stabilität als Frauen: Interview