Climate change policies have been rising to the top of the global political agenda, but how should governments finance them? Public economists propose solutions based on economic theory, but their political feasibility depends on voters' support, and ordinary households often neglect economic...

In diesem Jahr wird das preisbereinigte Bruttoinlandsprodukt voraussichtlich um 0,1% gegenüber dem Vorjahr zurückgehen. Damit tritt die deutsche Wirtschaft seit nunmehr fünf Jahren auf der Stelle. Digitalisierung, Dekarbonisierung, Demografie und Deglobalisierung erfordern einen Umbau der...

Die deutsche Wirtschaft arbeitet sich langsam aus der Krise. Zwar wird die Lage von den meisten Unternehmen nach wie vor schlecht bewertet. Allerdings konnten seit Jahresbeginn in allen Wirtschaftsbereichen die Erwartungen im Hinblick auf die Entwicklung in den kommenden Monaten zulegen....

Debt-to-GDP ratios have grown to unprecedented levels in many industrialized economies. This requires disciplined consolidation efforts which are, however, supposed to come now at the wrong time with the economic recovery being fragile. Against this background, we call for a global debt brake...

The current debt crisis has given rise to a debate about deeper fiscal integration in Europe. The view is widespread that moving towards a 'fiscal union' would have a stabilising effect in the event of macroeconomic shocks. In this paper we study the economic effects of introducing two elements...

This contribution develops a blueprint for a European fiscal union. The proposal addresses the shortcomings of most other reform designs which do not offer a solution for insolvent or non-cooperative euro countries. We suggest a design which combines fiscal insurance with an orderly procedure to...

This contribution develops a blueprint for a European fiscal union. We argue that a viable European fiscal union can be constructed without joint liability for public debt or a centralized government with a large common budget. Such a fiscal union should combine elements of market discipline...

In this paper, we investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on German household income using a micro-level approach. We combine a microsimulation model with labour market transition techniques to simulate the COVID-19 shock on the German labour market. We find the consequences of the...

We analyze how the combined effect of automatic stabilizers and discretionary changes in tax-benefit systems have affected the cushioning of income shocks in the Euro zone and the EU-27 in the period 2007-2014. We propose a new summary measure of the combined effect of automatic stabilizers and...