The local business tax as the main revenue source of local governments in Germany has been under extensive debate for decades. Proposals for reform range from a broad tax base in the sense of an origin-based value-added tax to a pure profit tax that could be implemented as a surcharge on...

This paper investigates the effect of shifting taxes from labor income to consumption on labor supply and the distribution of income in Germany. We simulate stepwise increases in the value-added tax (VAT) rate, which are compensated by revenue-neutral reductions in income-related taxes. We...

This professorial dissertation thesis collects several empirical studies on tax distribution and tax reform in Germany. Chapter 2 deals with two studies on effective income taxation, based on representative micro data sets from tax statistics. The first study analyses the effective income...

Sofern Steuersysteme nicht vollständig entscheidungsneutral ausgestaltet sind, beeinflussen Steuern die Vorteilhaftigkeit verschiedener Handlungsalternativen und damit die Entscheidungen und das Verhalten der Steuerpflichtigen. Das Wissen über Verhaltenswirkungen von Steuern ist Voraussetzung...

We analyze the impact of large firms on business tax rates using data from German mu-nicipalities in Hesse in 1998-2005. Results suggest that business tax rates decrease with tax-payers' concentration, indicating strong local lobbying power of large firms.