Abstract From a political economy perspective, politicians often fail to implement structural reforms. In this contribution we investigate if the resistance to reform is based on the differences in the risk preferences of voters, politicians, and bureaucrats. Based on three surveys among the...

Zusammenfassung Luxus, Statusstreben und demonstratives Konsumverhalten werden in der Geschichte ökonomischen Denkens bis heute immer wieder unterschiedlich betrachtet. So wundert es nicht, dass auch die Antwort auf die Frage, welche Rolle der Staat im Hinblick auf statusbedingtes...

The German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE) has the legal mandate to independently assess the state of the German economy, to formulate its expert opinion regarding issues of economic policy and to alert readers to any undesirable developments which threaten to arise in this context. While...