In recent years, a lot of rules concerning government expenditures as well as tax revenues were changed in Germany. Government expenditures in relation to GDP were reduced, income tax rates were lowered and the budget deficit declined. The structure of government expenditures changed in favor of...

In many countries, fiscal policy became strongly expansionary in order to fight the recession. Structural budget deficits increased sharply and might remain high after the end of the recession. This would raise real interest rates and would impair economic growth. Some measures to reduce the...

In the nineties, the German economy grew about half a percentage point less than the rest of the European Monetary Union (EMU). The paper deals with differences in fiscal policy as a potential reason for this. At least a part of the “growth gap” between Germany and the rest of the EMU can be...

Facing very modest GDP growth in Germany in 2001 and 2002, it is investigated if potential output will – as usually expected – grow by 1.5 to 2.0 percent until 2005. The incentives to work and to invest and their changes in the nineties are analyzed. Given the foreseeable changes of these...

In der Finanz- und Sozialpolitik Deutschlands hat es in den vergangenen Jahren viele Änderungen gegeben. Die Expansion der Staatsausgaben wurde begrenzt, die Einkommensteuersätze wurden reduziert und das Budgetdefizit des Staates verringert. Infolge der Begrenzung der Sozialleistungen hat die...