The tax and fiscal reforms headed by German finance minister Matthias Erzberger in 1919 and 1920 fundamentally reshaped German public finances. The total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP, or tax-to-GDP ratio, doubled and increased continually until the end of World War II. Since the 1950s, the...

Die Studie bietet einen Überblick über die Entwicklungstendenzen der Steuersysteme ausgewählter OECD-Länder im Verlauf der letzten Jahrzehnte. Die quantitative Entwicklung wird anhand diverser OECD-Statistiken illustriert. Länderkapitel zeichnen die Steuerpolitik nach und arbeiten deren...

This paper investigates the long-term evolution of the tax system in Germany to explain why the political left has increasingly expanded taxation to its own clientele. The paper contrasts the second half of the 19th with the second half of the 20th century to show that some of the underlying...