This paper studies the impact of trade liberalization in terms of tarif cuts within the Eastern European enlargement on German and Austrian firm productivity. Unique matching of data from 1994 to 2003 suggests that tarif reductions raise parent firm productivity significantly. A ten percentage...

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...

The Millennium Round of MTNs, which was stillborn in Seattle, was supposed to have initiated wide-sweeping changes to the world's trading system. This paper deals with the impact on the German economy of some changes that might have been forthcoming from proposed liberalization strategies. It...

The German "Zinsschranke" limits the tax deductability of interest expenses. Recently, in this journal Förster et al. have developed a model to incorporate this tax regulation into the calculation of the tax shield in corporate valuation. Our paper critically comments on this proposal. --...

Tax reform is a permanent topic of the economic policy debate in Germany. The paper presents a radical reform proposal (as well as a survey of other proposals) and describes some steps towards the realization of the proposal. The tax system proposed mainly consists of a value added tax, a flat...

Der Abbau der kalten Progression wird aktuell wieder diskutiert. An einigen Eckwerten des Einkommensteuertarifs lässt sich zeigen, dass die tatsächliche Entwicklung deutlich von den zum Ausgleich der Inflation erforderlichen Tarifänderungen abweicht. Die Autoren berechnen die Mindereinnahmen...

In 2005, the German government announced a far-reaching fiscal adjustment program. This paper uses the IMF's Global Fiscal Model to study its impact and explores options for addressing long-term pressures from population aging. The growth effects of the planned VAT increase are likely modest,...