This paper investigates empirically the influence of government ideology on social policy using German data. Examining the funding and the benefits of social security and public healthcare policy, my results suggest that policies implemented by governments dominated by left- and rightwing...

We examine how electoral motives influence active labor market policies that promote (short term) job-creation. Such policies reduce measures of unemployment. Using German state data for the period 1985 to 2004, we show that election-motivated politicians pushed job-promotion schemes before...

P<sc>otrafke</sc> N. Economic freedom and government ideology across the German states, <italic>Regional Studies</italic>. This paper examines whether government ideology influenced economic freedom across the German states. The results show that in former West Germany rightwing governments promoted economic freedom,...

My empirical results in Potrafke (<CitationRef CitationID="CR27">2012</CitationRef>) confirm past conclusions that Muslim-majority countries are less likely to be democratic. Hanusch takes issue with my results—and by inference with all past empirical results on the relation between Islam and democracy. In his comment on my study,...</citationref>

Using the POLITY IV and Freedom House indices, Rowley and Smith (Public Choice 139(3–4):273, <CitationRef CitationID="CR23">2009</CitationRef>) found that countries with Muslim majorities enjoy less freedom and are less democratic than countries in which Muslims are a minority. Because the POLITY IV and Freedom House indices have been...</citationref>

The paper examines how new airport infrastructure influences regional tourism. Identification is based on the conversion of a military airbase into a regional commercial airport in the German state of Bavaria. The new airport opened in 2007 and promotes travelling to the touristic region of...

Spatial inequalities in publicly provided goods such as healthcare facilities have substantial socioeconomic effects. Little is known, however, about why publicly provided goods diverge among urban and rural regions. This study exploits narrow parliamentary majorities in German states between...