This paper analyses fiscal autonomy in Germany. First, it provides an overview of fiscal autonomy. What is novel in this paper compared to previous studies is the development of a fiscal autonomy coefficient for the states, based on communal data. The basic intention in the empirical part is to...

Wirtschaftspolitische Entscheidungen sollten durch eine sorgfältige Beratung vorbereitet und begleitet werden. Kompetente Beratung seitens der unabhängigen Wissenschaft ist nötig, um einen nachhaltigen Politikansatz zu fördern und tendenziell kurzatmigen Lösungsversuchen entgegen zu wirken....

Do established parties change political institutions to disadvantage smaller, nonmainstream parties if the latters ́electoral prospects improve? We study this question with a natural experiment from the German federal state of Hesse. The experiment is the abolishment of an explicit electoral...

In several empirical contributions researchers have found a gender gap in preferences for public spending. This paper analyzes the persistence of these gender gaps when income differences between individuals are taken into consideration. Using survey data from the years 1996 and 2006 of German...

Do established parties change political institutions to disadvantage smaller, non-mainstream parties if the latters' electoral prospects improve? We study this question with a natural experiment from the German federal State of Hesse. The experiment is the abolishment of an explicit electoral...

Do established parties change political institutions to disadvantage smaller, non-mainstream parties if the latters' electoral prospects improve? We study this question with a natural experiment from the German federal state of Hesse. The experiment is the abolishment of an explicit electoral...

Es gibt in Deutschland bisher wenige Erhebungen dazu, wie Politiker:innen wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse für ihre Arbeit nutzen. Um diese Kenntnislücke zu füllen, hat die Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina eine Erhebung beauftragt, die sich an die Mitglieder des Deutschen...

Taking a cue from the assertion that “loose lips sink markets” (Carmassi and Micossi, 2010), this paper investigates to what extent and why political communication has had an impact on the sovereign bond spreads of selected euro area countries over the German Bund. Drawing on 25,000 news...

In 2001, the state parliament of the German federal state of Hesse abolished a 5 percent legal electoral threshold for local elections. This reform had a stronger effect on municipalities with larger councils because implicit electoral thresholds decrease with council size. Exploiting...