We identify investor moral hazard in the German fiscal federation. Our identification strategy is based on a variable, which was used by the German Federal Constitutional Court as an indicator to determine eligibility of two German states (Länder) to a bail-out, the interest payments-to-revenue...

In this paper, we take up the question why a group of sovereign countries is willing to form a federation even if residents of the high-income region suspect potential immigrants to be net beneficiaries of the tax and transfer system. We argue that income uncertainty alone cannot satisfactorily...

Durch den Solidarpakt II werden den neuen Ländern von 2005 bis 2019 Sonderbedarfsbundesergänzungszuweisungen in Höhe von insgesamt 105 Mrd. € zur Verfügung gestellt. Sie sollen der Deckung ihres infrastrukturellen Nachholbedarfs dienen. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass eine solche investive...

Die bestehenden Regeln zur Begrenzung der Staatsverschuldung im föderalen System Deutschlands sind unzureichend. Eine Aufteilung der Maastricht-Kriterien auf die Gebietskörperschaften setzt keine Anreize zur Vermeidung der Neuverschuldung, sofern die Obergrenzen erfüllt sind. Wir schlagen...

In the context of EMU fiscal equalization schemes have been proposed as a means to stabilize regions against asymmetric shocks. A theoretical analysis shows that besides reducing the cross-sectional income variance the redistributive element of fiscal equalization causes incentive effects for...

The paper addresses the welfare implications of conditional grants if government failure leads to inefficiencies in the production of regional public goods and services. Conditional grants may improve welfare by setting incentives for regions to improve efficiency. At the same time, resources...