This contribution addresses the substantial tax privilege for businesses introduced by the German InheritanceTax Act 2009. Advocates of the vast or even entire tax exemption for businesses stress the potentialdamage of the inheritance tax on businesses, as those often lack liquidity to meet tax...

This paper analyses the effects of discretionary fiscal policy by presenting new empiricalevidence for Germany within a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) framework. FollowingBlanchard and Perotti (2002), the SVAR model is identified by applying institutionalinformation. We find no...

We apply conjoint analysis to study the influence of tax labeling and tax earmarking onGerman taxpayers’ willingness to contribute. From a survey based sample we show thatlabeling and earmarking effects can substantially increase participants’ willingness tocontribute, which results in a...

We apply conjoint analysis to study the influence of tax labeling and tax earmarking onGerman taxpayers’ willingness to contribute. From a survey based sample we show thatlabeling and earmarking effects can substantially increase participants’ willingness tocontribute, which results in a...

The polluter pays principle tells us that whoever is responsible for producing pollution is alsoresponsible for paying for the damage caused by the pollution (OECD, 1992). So anyone whoseactivities lead to the emission of a tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) should be taxed for the extradamage that...

This paper develops a comprehensive endogenous growth framework to determinethe optimal mix of growth policies. The analysis is novel in that we captureimportant elements of the tax-transfer system and fully take into account transitionaldynamics in our numerical analysis. Currently, for...

Etablierte Demokratien westlichen Typs, wie etwa die DemokratieformDeutschlands, zeichnen sich durch handlungsrechtliche Systemstrukturen aus, diegraduell unterschiedlich große Verteilungsspielräume für politischeEntscheidungsträger enthalten. Dieser Sachverhalt steht in engemZusammenhang...

Um eine erbschaftsteuerbedingte Betriebsaufgabe zu verhindernund den Erhalt von Arbeitsplätzen zu fördern, haben das Erbschaftsteuerreformgesetz2008 und das Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz 2009 die Verschonungsregelnfür die Vererbung von Betriebsvermögen grundsätzlich überarbeitet.Dem...

Previous research on optimal R&D subsidies has focussed on the long run.This paper characterizes the optimal time path of R&D subsidization in a semi-endogenous growth model, by exploiting a recently developed numerical method.Starting from the steady state under current R&D subsidization in the...

This paper analyzes the e¤ectiveness of the tax and transfer systemsin the European Union and the US to act as an automatic stabilizer in the currenteconomic crisis. We …nd that automatic stabilizers absorb 38 per cent of a propor-tional income shock in the EU, compared to 32 per cent in the...