Viele Bundesländer haben nach der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise spezielle Konsolidierungsprogramme für finanzschwache Kommunen aufgelegt. Mit dem Programmstart zeigten sich bei den teilnehmenden Kommunen deutliche Verbesserungen bei den Finanzkennzahlen. Allerdings ergeben sich als Reaktion auf...

Although many political authorities endorse the basic goal of parity between men and women across the board, reality does not yet reflect this in Germany. In the German Bundestag, for example, at present 37.1 percent of representatives are women. Divided among the six parties with the greatest...

Obwohl viele Verantwortliche in der Politik das grundsätzliche Ziel einer Parität zwischen Männern und Frauen auf allen Ebenen unterstützen, sieht die Realität in Deutschland anders aus. Im Bundestag sind aktuell 37,1 Prozent der Abgeordneten Frauen. Für die anstehende Bundestagswahl...

We analyze a constitutional change in the German State of Bavaria where citizens, not politicians, granted themselves more say in politics at the local level through a constitutional initiative at the state level. This institutional setting allows us to focus on revealed preferences for direct...

This paper studies the causal effects of graduating from university with an honors degree on subsequent earnings. While a rich body of literature has focused on estimating returns to human capital, few studies have analyzed returns at the very top of the education distribution. We highlight the...

"'Marginal employment', i. e. employment with low working hours and earnings not covered by social security, has been gaining importance in the German economy over the past decade. Using a large newly available panel data set from the Employment Statistics of the Federal Employment Agency and...

Through an intertemporal budget constraint, jurisdictions may gain advantages in tax and spending competition by 'competing' on debt. While the existing spatial econometric literature focuses on tax and spending competition, very little is known about spatial interaction via public debt. This...

This paper studies the effect of attending a high-quality secondary school on subsequent educational outcomes. The analysis is based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study in which we observe children when they make their secondary school choice (between ages 10-12) and later when...