Federalism is a constitutionalized version of multi-tier governance. Proponents of veto-player theory argue that a high number of veto players leads to a high degree of policy stability. Compared to states with a unitary structure, federal countries, in which at least one sub-central level of...

International comparisons show that the reasons why e-government development in Germany does not occupy the desired "top spot" in rankings lie primarily in the inadequate provision of online services with little corresponding user orientation. In order to provide better and faster public...

This paper addresses the conceptual gap between the expected benefits of federalism in managing ethnicity-based conflict and its actual governance outcomes in the African context. One of the main reasons for this gap is the conflation of federalism with decentralization. In response, we develop...

This study is an extended version of the case study included in the study on Multi-level governance structures in the EU enlargement countries. It presents a complete overview of the institutional decentralisation levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with tasks attributed at all levels of...

This paper examines Political Budget Cycles in federal systems, focusing on how a central incumbent allocates discretionary transfers across states in response to electoral incentives. We develop a theoretical model predicting that average discretionary transfers increase during federal election...

Auf der Ebene von Bund, Ländern und Kommunen braucht es Strukturreformen und Fortschritte bei der Modernisierung. Darüber herrscht weitgehend Einigkeit. Erstens schafft die Digitalisierung von Verwaltungsvorgängen neue Möglichkeiten. Zweitens schrumpfen die personellen und finanziellen...

Bertrand's model of price duopoly with differentiated products is able to explain not only the behavior of walk-in customers, but also that of walk-in voters. The existence of a significant number of walk-in voters, in turn, explains a major characteristic of the so-called swing states in US...

Im Herbst 2021 wurde das Gesetz zur ganztägigen Förderung von Kindern im Grundschulalter (Ganztagsförderungsgesetz - GaFöG ) verabschiedet. Damit haben Grundschulkinder, die im Jahr 2026 oder später in die erste Klasse kommen, bundesweit einen Rechtsanspruch auf eine Förderung im Umfang...

Federated Learning (FL) presents a promising approach to machine learning (ML) by allowing multiple sources of data (devices or entities) to collaboratively train a shared model while keeping data decentralised. This approach mitigates privacy risks as raw data remains locally on the sources,...

Although reassignment of policy instruments among governments in many federations is a recurring event, there is no widely accepted, positive model of the phenomenon. This stands in contrast to the well established body of work on the normative theory of the efficient federal assignment. In this...

Ethnic federalism has long been a cornerstone of Ethiopia’s political system - and a recurrent source of violent conflict. Despite its centrality to the country’s governance and conflict dynamics, there is a notable absence of large-N quantitative research examining how exposure to violence...

This paper overviews theoretical and empirical contributions that study political borders from an economic perspective. It reviews theories of the number and size of nations focused on the trade-off between economies of scale in public-good provision and heterogeneity of preferences over public...

We investigate the consequences of a peaceful shift of power from one social group to another. Theoretically, we show that an individual’s decision to stay put or migrate depends on the difference between the political preferences of groups and the change in tax. Empirically, we use the case...

We investigate the consequences of a peaceful shift of power from one social group to another. Theoretically, we show that an individual's decision to stay put or migrate depends on the difference between the political preferences of groups and the change in tax. Empirically, we use the case of...

This paper analyzes whether the propensity to secede by subnational regions responds mostly to differences in income per capita or to distinct identities. We explore this question in a quantitative political economy model where people's willingness to finance a public good depends on their...

Federalism is a constitutionalized version of multi-tier governance. Proponents of veto-player theory argue that a high number of veto players leads to a high degree of policy stability. Compared to states with a unitary structure, federal countries, in which at least one sub-central level of...

Many federal tax systems employ formula apportionment to allocate the taxable profits of large businesses to the federal subunits, where the subunits' specific tax rates are then applied. The formulas—such as the one recently proposed by the EU Commission and the one agreed upon by the...

German Länder (federal states) have great leeway in designing education policies. This applies to early childhood, school-based, and tertiary education—and the allocation of money to these policy domains. However, when drafting budgets, state cabinets are confronted with trade-offs because...