A well-known strategy of tax avoidance by multinationals is to locate debt in subsidiaries in countries with a high tax rate. In case of M&As it is particularly advantageous to locate debt at the level of holdings. By using firm-level data provided by the German Central Bank, I show empirically...

This paper considers the welfare implications of a tax on real estate transfers. A theoretical analysis shows how the discouragement of mutually beneficial transactions as well as tax- sheltering activities give rise to a welfare loss that can be estimated using the empirical elasticity of the...

This paper tests whether intangible capital is a substitute or, to some degree, a complement to standard inputs in the production process. The analysis is conducted for public sectors in which governmental institutions are directly responsible both for efficiently producing public goods and for...

We estimate causal employment effects of investment subsidies for treated firms as a whole as well as heterogeneous effects depending on firm characteristics and economic environment. We modify the standard matching and difference-in-difference approach by introducing a combined statistical...

This paper explores the role of fiscal equalization as a driver of states’ tax policy in Germany. We argue that fiscal redistribution of tax revenues provides an incentive for states to increase their tax rates. The analysis exploits differences in the degree of fiscal redistribution among the...

This paper investigatesthe effect of firms' internal digitalization on the performance of business support functions such as the tax department. We put forward a novel, micro-level IT sophistication index based on a survey monitoring European firms' digital infrastructure. Following the...

I study tax avoidance along the income distribution based on micro data from the Income and Consumption Survey (EVS) for the year 2013. The richness of the survey concerning income, taxes and expenditures is exploited by modelling the German tax code in terms of the items available in the EVS....

We employ an event study methodology to investigate the stock price reaction around the day of the political decision to include a country-by-country reporting obligation for EU financial institutions. We do not find significant abnormal returns for the banks affected. Sample splits according to...

This paper studies the properties of convexity (concavity) and strategic complements (substitutes) in network formation and the implications for the structure of pairwise stable networks. First, different definitions of convexity (concavity) in own links from the literature are put into the...