1995 to study the fiscal effects of direct democracy. In the first part of the paper, we establish the relationship between … from Switzerland and the US - direct democracy causes an expansion of local government budgets. …

excluded from the voters' right of the initiative? I study this question by extending the analysis to German direct democracy … 2009, I show that in this sample and in contrast to the Swiss and US evidence direct democracy causes an expansion of local … towards exploiting their direct democracy rights and their preferences for local public policies. To address this issue I use …

: first fairness preferences, second beliefs on the sources of economic success and the functioning of democracy and third …

EU Eastern Enlargement elicited a rise in (temporary) labour market oriented immi-gration to Germany starting in May …