With greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions decreasing by more than 18% in the 1990s, Germany appears to be among the few industrialised countries which are on track to meet the targets they committed themselves to under the Kyoto Protocol. This achievement may appear less remarkable if one takes into...

Abstract The article analyses the potential role of the benefit principle in public finance. Against the background that the benefit principle plays a minor part both in the theory and in the politics of public finance, first the advantages of this principle are traced out. By bringing together...

Abstract In their paper Thomas Döring and Bernd Hansjürgens refer to the reform discussion of local public finance in Germany. Against the background of rising expenditures and lower revenues a fiscal reform on the local level is absolutely necessary. Such a reform should focus on both the...

Zusammenfassung Häufig wird die Auffassung vertreten, daß eine Gebührenfinanzierung der Hochschulbildung zu einem Konflikt zwischen Effizienz und Sozialverträglichkeit führe. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird diese Auffassung kritisch überprüft, indem die allokativen und distributiven Effekte...

Biodiversity is a highly complex and abstract ecological concept. Even though it is not one physical entity, it influences human well-being in multiple ways, mostly indirectly. While considerable research effort has been spent on the economic valuation of biodiversity, it remains to be a...

The German energy transition represents a policy-driven, sustainability-oriented restructuring of both supply- and demand-side components of the entire energy system by 2050. Whereas the development of renewable energies in the electricity sector is right on track, due to the feed-in tariffs of...