Recent experience shows that under certain conditions it can be assumed that de-mand for luxury goods is partly abnormal. To tackle the problem whether they can and should be taxed we (a) show that a positive slope of demand is possible by distinguishing snob and network benefits, (b)...

Bei aller Hysterie, die sich an Begriffen wie ?Klimakatastrophe? festmachen lässt und die aktuell fast schon zu Bestandteilen des Glaubensbekenntnis mutieren, ist es für Ökonomen, die sich mit Umwelt und Umweltgütern beschäftigen, umso wichtiger, nüchtern, abgewogen und rational zu...

The nexus between income and happiness is very much disputed. Many cross-sectional studies see a positive relationship, most longitudinal studies don't. Starting from the fact that the theoretical basis in happiness research has been comparatively weak, we develop a model that identifies...

Studies on EU enlargement mostly focus on its welfare-economic and much less so on its public-choice dimension. Yet, the latter may be as important as the former when it comes to sustain integration. This paper aims at filling the gap by exploring theoretically and empirically how enlargement of...

This article focuses on the role of unionized members in parliament. Unions have not been successful in increasing their monopoly power during the last decades in the US. Similarly, a recent study for Germany comes to the result that union members in the Bundestag cannot be seen as the...

Studies on EU enlargement mostly focus on its welfare-economic and much less so on its public-choice dimension. Yet, the latter may be as important as the former when it comes to sustain integration. This paper aims at filling the gap by exploring theoretically and empirically how enlargement of...

Strengthening elements of direct democracy has become a hotly debated issue especially in purely representative democracies where distrust in political institutions and policymakers has been continually growing in recent years. We develop a compensation model of interest groups seeking a...

This paper utilizes the cross-cutting cleavages approach to evaluate the probability of a unanimous constitutional consent and, based on these results, discusses the implications of immigration on an existing constitutional consent. It is shown that previous conclusions of beneficial effects...

Aus moderner wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Sicht leistet die ökonomische Theorie der Clubs einen wichtigen Beitrag zu einer effizienten Gestaltung von Integrationsprozessen, insbesondere der Europäischen Union. Um aber das Pareto-Optimum einer Welt voller Clubs bestimmen zu können, spielt die...

Previous studies were plagued with considerable problems when interpreting and empirically analysing Wagner's Law. Therefore, we initially present some kind of "pure theory of government's share" for a two-person society based on the pure theory of public and private goods as originally...