In a bold legislative move, in 2009 Germany introduced a fundamental reform of the government borrowing rules which are specified in its constitu-tion. In particular, state governments will be required to provide a balanced budget, abstracting from cyclical fluctuations, starting in the year...

1. Gemäß § 6 Absatz 1 des Gesetzes über die Bildung eines Sachverständigenrates zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung legt der Sachverständigenrat sein 54. Jahresgutachten vor. Das Jahresgutachten 2017/18 trägt den Titel: Für eine zukunftsorientierte Wirtschaftspolitik....

This article demonstrates that the large feed-in tariffs currently guaranteed for solar electricity in Germany constitute a subsidization regime that, if extended to 2020, threatens to reach a level comparable to that of German hard coal production, a notoriously outstanding example of misguided...

Along with the oil price, concerns about the security of energy supply have soared once again in recent years. Yet, more than 30 years after the OPEC oil embargo in 1973, energy security still remains a diffuse concept. This paper conceives a statistical indicator that aims at characterizing the...

It is well known that smoking causes severe adverse health effects, and it seems evident that governments are justified or even obliged to implement measures of tobacco control to mitigate these effects. Yet, as this paper argues with a distinct focus on Germany, the three most important and...