The use of digital services is largely non-rival. This paper argues that vanishing marginal costs of supply change policy incentives. Small countries are incentivized to tax the import of digital services. In fact, various countries have already moved towards expanded source taxation of online...

Assuming isoelastic returns to education and an endogenous supply of qualified and nonqualified labour, it is shown to be second-best efficient not to distort the choice of education. Furthermore, taxation should set incentives so that qualified labour is substituted for nonqualified labour. As...

In Europe, the competence for social security and the right to levy income tax lie with the country of employment in cross-border matters. This has two disadvantages. First, the Employment Principle distorts active persons' choice of place of work. Second, the employment-based regulation of...

Applying the theory of yardstick competition to the schooling system, we show that it is optimal to have central tests of student achievement and to engage in benchmarking because it raises the quality of teaching. This is true even if teachers’ pay (defined in monetary terms) is not...

According to the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany it is unconstitutional if members of the mandatory insurance against long-term care have to pay contributions that are not conditional on the number of their children. This article takes a critical view on child-related...

Taxing intellectual property effectively is a challenging task. With its BEPS initiative the OECD (2013) aims at taxing intangibles in accordance with value creation although difficulties in determining the jurisdiction in which value creation occurs are acknowledged. The European Commission...

Assuming a two-period model with endogenous choices of labour, education, and saving, it is shown to be second-best efficient not to distort the choice of education...