A simple Tiebout model is presented where states provide university education to both immobile and mobile students. State governments choose the quality of public universities by trading off the value of education for the local immobile student population and the costs, net of tuition revenues,...

A model is presented where workers of differing abilities and from different social backgrounds are assigned to jobs based on grades received at school. It is examined how this matching is affected if good grades are granted to some low ability students. Such grade inflation is shown to reduce...

We use a stylized model to show that, if transfers to the poor are founded on a security argument, there is a negative trade-o¤ between law enforcement expenditures and criminality. In contrast, if transfers are based on altruism, the correlation between the same variables may appear positive....

This paper challenges the assertion that European politics would be closer to the citizens' preferences if decision power were transferred from the Council of Ministers to the European Parliament. On the one hand, citizens benefit from a greater transparency in the Parliament's debates compared...

This paper assesses the consequences of EU enlargement for East West migration. In the theoretical part, we identify several factors in addition to the reduction of moving costs by which EU membership influences migration. Specifically, EU accession affects income gaps. Moreover, if EU...

In der Diskussion um die Reform der föderalen Finanzverfassung wird oft eine Stärkung der Steuerautonomie der Länder gefordert. Seitens der Befürworter wird die damit verbundene Ausweitung der Eigenverantwortlichkeit begrüßt, von der stärkere Anreize für eine solide Haushaltspolitik und...

Die Ökologische Steuerreform wurde expressis verbis mit der Zielsetzung verabschiedet, einen ökologischen Umbau der Industriegesellschaft einzuleiten und den Arbeitsmarkt zu entlasten. Obwohl das Beschäftigungsziel in Zeiten hoher Arbeitslosigkeit Priorität genießt, ist seine Betonung im...

Company taxes and taxes on highly skilled labour both influence the attractiveness of a particular region as a location for investment. We measure the effective tax burden on capital investment and on highly qualified labour in 33 locations across Europe and the United States. We then correlate...