Gibt es höhere oder niedrigere Steuern, wenn Bürgerinnen und Bürger direkt anstelle von Parlamenten entscheiden? Eine neue Studie zeigt: Es kommt ganz auf die Steuer an. Die Grundsteuer, die alle zahlen müssen, dürfte eher sinken. Für Unternehmen ändert sich dagegen wenig - die Hebesätze...

Do citizens legislate different tax policies than parliaments? We provide quasi-experimental evidence for causal effects of direct democracy. Town meetings (popular assemblies) replace local councils in small German municipalities below a specific population threshold. Difference-in-differences,...

Do citizens legislate different tax policies than parliaments? We provide quasi-experimental evidence for causal effects of direct democracy. Town meetings (popular assemblies) replace local councils in small German municipalities below a specific population threshold. Difference-in-differences,...

Do citizens legislate different tax policies than parliaments? We provide quasi-experimental evidence for causal effects of direct democracy. Town meetings (popular assemblies) replace local councils in small German municipalities below a specific population threshold. Difference-in-differences,...

Gibt es höhere oder niedrigere Steuern, wenn Bürgerinnen und Bürger direkt anstelle von Parlamenten entscheiden? Eine neue Studie zeigt: Es kommt ganz auf die Steuer an. Die Grundsteuer, die alle zahlen müssen, dürfte eher sinken. Für Unternehmen ändert sich dagegen wenig – die...

States merge small and medium sized municipalities to achieve economies of scale. Little is known to which extent mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures. I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of county-sized administrations in Germany (districts) on...

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...

I present the first database of historical local population figures for all Germany. The German Local Population Database (GPOP) includes total population in 1871, 1910, 1939, 1946, 1961, 1987, 1996, 2011, and 2019 for the universe of all German municipalities, counties, and states at consistent...

In many federal countries, local governments run large deficits, even when fiscal supervision by state authorities is tight. I investigate to which extent party alignment of governments and fiscal supervisors influences budget deficits. The dataset includes 427 German local governments for the...