The welfare state has long been under debate. Besides various theoretical discussions, it has often been empirically investigated regarding its effects on inequality and economic growth. With the advent of the scientific field of happiness research, scholars began to discuss the welfare state's...

One of the enduring conclusions of political economy is that the government's share of the economy tends to grow over time and with a rising gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Yet, from the late 1980s through to 2008, government spending as a percentage of GDP declined in the typical year...

We investigate the impact of immigration on public budgets using administrative data from German districts (Kreise). While previous literature suggests that the fiscal benefits of migration depend on government spending responses to immigration, the local-level effects in Germany remain...