Die andauernde EU-Schuldenkrise, die damit verbundene Verantwortung beim europäischen Schuldenabbau sowie allen voran die notleidenden Mitgliedstaaten fordern eine Vorbildfunktion der deutschen Bundesregierung ein. Doch inwieweit hat Deutschland selbst seine eigene Schuldenbilanz unter...

Models of effective fiscal supervision usually assume neutral and benevolent overseers. In reality, fiscal supervisors often lack such independence. If overseers and supervised officials are partisan, party favouritism and politics may replace other objectives. The two case studies discussed in...

Is government ideology important for fiscal policy? I study this question with data from all German States over the period 1975-2005. To identify the effect of ideology, I rely on a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. I find that left-wing state governments spend more than state governments...