Abstract Stefan Homburg points out that in Germany commuting expenses have been deductible from the income tax base for a long time. Germany’s grand coalition has now restricted this deduction. The article analyses whether or not this was justified from an economic point of view. It is shown...

The rational prodigality argument, which often serves to justify social security, is considered in a second-best tax framework with endogenous labor supply. Rational prodigality renders the familiar policies time inconsistent. We analyze time consistent policies and show that a wage tax suffices...

This paper makes a fresh attempt at characterizing optimal commodity taxes. Under the usual assumptions, an extremely simple expression of second-best commodity taxes is derived, showing tax rates as functions of observable variables only, rather than as functions of unobservable variables such...

Effective from 2008, Germany's top marginal income tax rate rises from 42 to 45 per cent. However, sole proprietorships and partnerships can opt for a preferential tax rate of 28.25 per cent for retained profits (§ 34a EStG-E). If they do so, profits are taxed again upon distribution. Using...

In recent contributions, Weizs cker (2014) and Summers (2014) maintain that mature economies accumulate too much capital. They suggest large and lasting public deficits as a remedy. This paper argues that overaccumulation cannot occur in an economy with land. It presents novel data of aggregate...

type="main" xml:id="geer12053-abs-0001" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>In recent contributions, von Weizsäcker (2014) and Summers (2014) maintain that mature economies accumulate too much capital. They suggest large and lasting public deficits as a remedy. This study argues that overaccumulation cannot occur in an...</p>