Judged by the principle of intertemporal Pareto optimality, insecure property rights and the greenhouse effect both imply overly rapid extraction of fossil carbon resources. A gradual expansion of demand-reducing public policies -- such as increasing ad-valorem taxes on carbon consumption or...

A political miracle occurred when Germany was reunited, and at first glance an economic miracle has followed. Real incomes in the east have now reached the western level, and investment per capita has been much higher than in the west. However, every third deutschmark spent in the east has been...

Squaring hourly demand and wind-solar production data for Germany and a number of neighbouring countries with the results of the EU's ESTORAGE project, this paper studies the limits of Germany's energy revolution in view of the volatility of wind and solar power. In addition to pumped storage,...

This paper advances the hypothesis that the EUS crisis was caused by German unification. The unification has implied a massive resource demand which parallels the US resource demand following Reagan's tax reforms in the eighties. The resource demand revised the German interest rates relative to...

The upcoming demographic crisis in Germany demands fundamental reforms of the pension system. In a democracy, reforms are, however, only feasible when they are supported by the majority of the electorate. To determine whether the majority is in favor of reforms of the pension system, we...

Based on explicit present value calculations, the paper criticizes the view that the PAYGO system wastes economic resources. In present value terms, there is nothing to be gained from a transition to funded system even though the latter offers a permanently higher rate of return. The sum of the...

Als Antwort auf einen Beitrag im Handelsblatt vom 25. Oktober 2012 erläutert Hans-Werner Sinn die Unterschiede zwischen Konjunktur und Trend und verdeutlicht die Natur von Punktprognosen sowie den Unterschied zwischen Prognosen und ifo Index.

In seiner Replik zu Jürgen Kromphardts "Gegen-Anmerkung" führt Hans-Werner Sinn aus, dass Kromphardts Aussagen über die Lohnstückkosten und die Erhöhung der Stückgewinne für sich genommen zwar korrekt, seine Schlussfolgerung, dass die höheren Stückgewinne auf einen unausgenutzten...