Openness for trade can have positive welfare effects in terms of higher growth. But increased openness may also increase uncertainty through a higher volatility of employment. We use regional data from Germany to test whether openness for trade has an impact on volatility. We find a downward...

Aggregated output in industrialized countries has become less volatile over the past decades. Whether this Great Moderation" can be found in firm level data as well remains disputed. We study the evolution of firm level output volatility using a balanced panel dataset on German firms that covers...

This paper analyses the effectiveness of the corporate income tax as an automatic stabilizer. It employs a unique firm-level dataset of German manufacturers combining financial statements with firm-specific information about credit market restrictions. The results show that approximately 20 per...

The German Income Tax Reform 2000, which announced a reduction in income tax rates to be implemented in a series of three stages, was welcomed by the public as a step towards unleashing lurking growth potentials. Nonetheless, in the course of the year 2001 a dispute arose, centering around the...

Insufficient capital buffers of banks have been identified as one main cause for the large systemic effects of the recent financial crisis. Although higher capital is no panacea, it yet features prominently in proposals for regulatory reform. But how do increased capital requirements affect...

In dieser Studie setzt sich der Kronberger Kreis kritisch mit der Frage auseinander, inwieweit die Erbschaftsteuer auf eine regelkonforme Gesetzesgrundlage aufbaut und welche Änderungen vorgenommen werden könnten, diese Grundlage effizienter und fairer zu gestalten.Gesamtwirtschaftlich...