Das ZEW Mannheim hat in Kooperation mit der Süddeutschen Zeitung die finanziellen Auswirkungen von Reformvorschlägen der Parteien zur Bundestagswahl 2025 untersucht. Diese betreffen die Einkommensteuer und den Solidaritätszuschlag, die Vermögensteuer, das Bürgergeld, den Mindestlohn und...

[Einleitung:] Das ZEW Mannheim hat in Kooperation mit der Süddeutschen Zeitung die finanziellen Auswirkungen von Reformvorschlägen der Parteien zur Bundestagswahl 2025 untersucht. Diese betreffen die Einkommensteuer und den Solidaritätszuschlag, die Vermögensteuer, das Bürgergeld, den...

This report aims to identify barriers, needs, and potential opportunities for Kosovo to digitally transform its basic education system to strengthen efficiency and improve student performance in foundational skills (including digital skills). The rest of the report is structured as follows....

Adequate budgeting of the judiciary is critical for the effective delivery of justice. This brief presents trends in judicial budgets. Courts account for less than 2 percent of total government expenditure on average, with significant portions dedicated to fixed costs such as salaries, thereby...

This note explores the use of technology to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of judicial service delivery. It examines how technological solutions can support streamlining internal court processes, facilitate access for court users, and support the quality of judicial...

Small claims courts and procedures play an important role in enhancing the efficiency and accessibility of the justice system. When well-designed, they can significantly streamline judicial processes, reduce the burden on courts, and increase access to justice for individuals and small...

The EU faces challenges in keeping pace with the rapid technological developments of the 21st century while striving to align them with societal transitions and planetary boundaries. This Policy Brief argues that a proactive governance framework is essential to address the ethical, social,...

Created at the beginning of the current European Commission's mandate, DG REFORM has emerged as the centrepiece of EU support for the implementation of EU policies and the further integration and convergence of the Member States within the single market. Amid a period of economic and social...

The weaknesses of the Common European Asylum System have led to conflicts of interest between the EU's external border states and the main destination countries, such as Germany. After years of negotiations, the reform of the European asylum policy was formally adopted by the European Parliament...

Innovation is key for economic growth and well-being. The capacity for innovation, however, is profoundly influenced by the quality of local institutions. Although the impact of national institutions on innovation is well-documented, the effects of subnational institutional variations on...

Cohesion Policy (CP) has been a central economic policy tool of the EU for several decades. In the current context of fundamental challenges facing the EU, and ahead of the next seven-year budgetary cycle, Europe has the opportunity to rethink and reform the EU budget and CP in particular. This...

Fossil fuel subsidies are universally regarded as bad policy, yet they are depressingly common. Evidently, domestic politics drives this outcome. Drawing on recent literature, this very short paper summarizes lessons for reformers in a way, it is hoped, that they find useful

Taking the case of high-pressure political reforms including the ongoing anti-corruption campaign in China, we investigate the impact of such reforms on the performance of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) relative to non-SOEs from the agency problem perspective. We report that before the...

The existing literature on the effects of education on political attitudes has not yet reached a theoretical consensus about how formal schooling influences students’ political attitudes in the short run and long run, especially at a time of dramatic changes in a country’s political and...

The report explores modeling approaches, designs, and impacts of CGE modeling exercises carried out for energy subsidy reforms in different country settings. The report reviews approaches used as part of operational and analytical engagements supported by the World Bank, including those funded...

'The Commission recommends opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is achieved': so reads the 2023 Enlargement Package unveiled on 8 November. Ahead of the European Council in December, some EU Member...

'The Commission recommends opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is achieved': so reads the 2023 Enlargement Package unveiled on 8 November. Ahead of the European Council in December, some EU Member...

This paper analyzes Japan's 1993 general election and the impact it had on the political culture of the nation. The paper begins by analyzing the dominance and corruption of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party prior to the election, before explaining the factors behind the electoral victory of...

Understanding the cpc system yao yang -- Beyond liberal democracy the enlightenment of confucianism and contemporary practice yao yang and qin zizhong -- The credible commitment and the modernization of national governance yao yang -- Constitutional democracy and its conceptual analysis chen...

Some societies appear to be better equipped than others to implement efficiency enhancing policy reforms and to deliver positive results out of their implementation. Our model presents an under-examined element of policy reform and institutional quality, showing how the characteristics of the...

Questions of career advancement and success have long occupied scholars of the Chinese state. Most work on political mobility in China views mobility from the perspective of the individual. It imagines a pool of officials who are at risk of moving up a status hierarchy of positions and the goal...

This paper questions the effect of democracy on regulatory reforms by mainly checking whether the observed differences between the transition economies and the rest of the economies in terms of engaged reforms are related to the level of democracy. Our results, based primarily on the Oaxaca -...

The European Pillar Action Plan highlighted the importance of childcare as an important element to increase women's employment rates. Childcare is also a headline target of the European Pillar of Social Rights, and central to the Gender Equality Strategy. Against this background, we provide a...

For a long time, a key condition for Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) to entry into force was the implementation of the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of Sejdić-Finci v Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) and Zornić v B&H. According to the judgment of the ECtHR, the...

In her article The People's Ledger, Professor Saule Omarova offers “a blueprint for reform that would radically democratize access to money and control over financial flows in the nation’s economy.” In this Response, I critically evaluate the set of proposals put forward in The People’s...

The Netherlands reformed its disability insurance (DI) scheme in 2006. Reintegration incentives became stronger, access to disability benefits became more difficult and the benefits often became less generous. Using administrative data on all individuals who reported sick shortly before and...

Proponents of drug decriminalization typically emphasize the reform’s utilitarian potential to reverse mass incarceration trends, reduce racial disparities within the justice system, and minimize the economic costs associated with drug enforcement. However, decriminalization has an additional,...

The euphoria felt by both domestic and foreign liberal audiences following the victory of a pro-reform party in Moldova is now receding. The new Moldovan leadership has stumbled in fulfilling its main electoral promise, namely to fight corruption by effectively reforming the justice system....