Abstract Since the fiscal equalization system among states in Germany was repeatedly the subject of controversial political discussions, there exist many proposals in economics for far-reaching reforms. However, these proposals are deficient because they do not take into account the necessity of...

Abstract Public debt is one of the controversial and therefore most exciting subjects in the field of public finance. Since the 1970s many industrial countries constantly accumulated public dept, and this development was explained mainly from a public choice perspective. In the meantime the...

Abstract In their paper Thomas Döring and Bernd Hansjürgens refer to the reform discussion of local public finance in Germany. Against the background of rising expenditures and lower revenues a fiscal reform on the local level is absolutely necessary. Such a reform should focus on both the...

Abstract Since the 1970s many industrial countries constantly accumulated public debt. This was a new phenomenon that had not been observed in the years before. Scientists tried to find explanations and analysed the development mainly from a public choice perspective. In the meantime signs...

Abstract In Germany, the current situation of local government finance is still worrying. Up to now, all political attempts to reform the German local tax system fundamentally led to no satisfying result. For this reason, new reform initiatives gain particular attention in scientific and...

Abstract In Germany there is a discussion on the design of regional policy, whether cohesion is still appropriate or should be replaced by a regional growth policy for efficiency reasons. This discussion is most notably founded with theoretical arguments from the new growth theory as well as the...

Abstract In Germany there exists a political consensus that the economic and fiscal burden of the German reunification should be shared by all three jurisdictional levels of the federal system. According to existing law the burden sharing between the state and local authorities has to be...

Abstract In Germany, state and local authorities are repeatedly in conflict with each other regarding the funding of municipal households. Concerning this matter a sufficient fiscal endowment of local public authorities does not only depend on a deemed-to-satisfy provision of state grants but...

Abstract Within the local fiscal equalization system of North Rhine-Westphalia, anticipated financial needs of municipalities are estimated by the use of regression analysis. In the recent past the previously exercised regression approach shows unexpected results concerning the main parameters...

Summary Most German states changed their local constitutions during the 1990s in order to become more citizen-friendly. To reach that goal, many local constitutions now allow for the direct election of mayors, initiatives and referenda, and vote-aggregation as well as vote-splitting....