Steuerentlastungen durch das Konjunkturpaket II

Zusammenfassung  Zu den Ma?nahmen des Konjunkturpaketes II geh?rt eine Senkung der Einkommensteuer. Die Bundesregierung hatte dabei beabsichtigt, vor allem die niedrigen und mittleren Einkommen zu entlasten sowie einen Einstieg in den Abbau der kalten Progression vorzunehmen. Welche Entlastungswirkungen haben diese Ma?nahmen tats?chlich? Ist es gelungen, den sogenannten Mittelstandsbauch im Einkommensteuertarif zu schm?lern? Alfred Kruhl verfasst nach seiner beruflichen T?tigkeit — unter anderem in der Grundsatzabteilung des Bundesministeriums der Finanzen — Fachaufs?tze zu aktuellen steuer- und tagespolitischen Themen.     

Die Gestaltung der Steuerehrlichkeit durch das Steuerrecht

Ohne Zusammenfassung Kilian Bizer lehrt Wirtschaftspolitik an der Universit?t G?ttingen     

Kommunikationssteuerung und Kommunikationscontrolling Das Beispiel Henkel

Zusammenfassungen  In Zeiten von immer knapper werdenden Ressourcen sehen sich viele Kommunikationsverantwortliche zunehmend in der Pflicht, die vorhandenden Budgets effizient und effektiv einzusetzen sowie ihren Wertsch?pfungsbeitrag nachzuweisen. Dabei unterliegen sie den gleichen Controllinganforderungen, die an andere Funktionen eines Unternehmens gestellt werden. Eine m?gliche Strategie zeigt das Praxisbeispiel des internationalen Konsumgüterherstellers Henkel. Ernst Primosch Corporate Vice President und Head Corporate Communications bei der Henkel KGaA in Düsseldorf M. A. Simone Gleumes Leiterin Strategy & Steering im Bereich Corporate Communications bei der Henkel KGaA in Düsseldorf     

Betroffenheiten von Unternehmen und Kommunen durch den Klimawandel und Handlungsoptionen

Die Klimapolitik kann nicht mehr nur aus Klimaschutzma?nahmen bestehen, sondern muss auch heute schon Anpassungsma?nahmen an die Folgen des Klimawandels ergreifen. Diese Ma?nahmen k?nnen einander unterstützen, aber auch gegenl?ufig wirken. In einer systematischen Aufstellung werden die Betroffenheit der jeweiligen Akteure erfasst und Reaktionsm?glichkeiten aufgezeigt.     

Belastet das Arbeitsrecht kleine und mittelgroße Unternehmen?

In der arbeitsmarktpolitischen Diskussion wird immer wieder eine Lockerung des Kündigungsschutzes gefordert, so auch jüngst auf dem Parteitag der CDU. In welchem Ausmaß belastet das geltende Arbeitsrecht die kleinen und mittelgroßen Unternehmen? Verhindert der Kündigungsschutz die Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen?Prof. Dr. Heide Pfarr, 60, ist Geschäftsführerin und wissenschaftliche Direktorin des WSI in der Hans–Böckler–Stiftung und leitet das Projekt Regulierung des Arbeitsmarktes (REGAM); Marcus Bradtke, 31, Dipl.-Sozialökonom, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Projekt Regulierung des Arbeitsmarktes.     

Biontechs Steuerbooster und seine Nebenwirkungen auf das Finanzgefüge

Wirtschaftsdienst - Der Mainzer Impfstoffhersteller Biontech hatte 2021 eine glänzende Geschäftsentwicklung, die zu einem sprunghaften Anstieg der rheinland-pfälzischen...     

Überlegungen zur Bedeutung Unverbindlicher Preisempfehlungen und ihrer Kontrolle durch das Bundeskartellamt Ein Kommentar zu den Beiträgen von Reich und Schultes in ZVP, 1, 1977/3 bzw. 1977/4

Reflections on the importance of recommended prices and their control by the Cartel Office. A comment on the papers by Reich (JCP, 1, 1977/3) and Schultes (JCP, 1, 1977/4). The The comment deals with two previous articles on recommended prices. Both Reich and Schultes refer to the 1977 report of the German Federal Government on recommended prices, which was intended to show the consequences of price recommendations and to give a better base for further decisions of the legislative assembly. The two authors evaluate the information in this report very differently and draw opposite conclusions. Reich pleads in the interest of the consumer for an unlimited prohibition of the institute of recommended prices. His thesis is based on three arguments:

1. Article 38 a of the Law Against Restraints of Competition implies that manufacturers often find themselves in a dilemma. Either they respect the character of the price as recommended, not binding, whereby the often emerging wide retail price range activates the Cartel Office which calls for the abolition of the recommended price since it is “unrealistic”, or manufacturers require that the recommended price is adhered to, which leads to accusations of price fixing. In practice, therefore, the institute of recommended prices is on the decrease except in connection with selective distribution systems where it is used increasingly and functions as vertical price fixing.
2. Prices which are recommended and available to retailers only are devices for concerted vertical pricing and in reality work like price fixing.
3. An abolition of recommended prices would strengthen traders' and consumers' resistance to high prices.

Schultes, on the other hand, adopts the view that the present Law together with some minor improvements is sufficient to protect the consumer against misuses of recommended prices. His view is based on the argument that the control by the Cartel Office has been successful, considering the great number of eliminated price recommendations, and that in the case of an unlimited prohibition of recommended prices on would have to reckon with the development of uncontrollable surrogates. A critical examination of these arguments shows that neither position is well-founded. The theoretical considerations of both authors contain contradictions and are not based on empirical findings. Schultes' paper suggests that the control of recommended prices by the Cartel Office leads to a continuous decimation of recommended prices and therefore, in the long run, either to the same result as Reich's demand or to a treatment which discriminates against certain firms or trades. It is very doubtful if the development of surrogates is prevented through this control. The statement of Schultes that the Cartel Office's control activity has been sucessful up to now also seems very questionable, since the number of eliminated price recommendations is not sufficient proof; a more sophisticated cost-benefit analysis is called for. The analysis of Reich's arguments indicates the following:

1. It is quite correct that Article 38 a of the Law contains conflicting aims. This conflict arises from the choice of criteria for declaring recommendations unlawful. There are two possible solutions to the conflict: the total abolition of recommended prices or a change in the criteria for misuses of the institute. Reich favours the first solution without considering that the second possibility may perhaps offer a better solution. Further considerations show that the conflict arises above all from prohibiting actual prices from being much lower than recommended prices. This rule seems very questionable because it eliminates price competition. Furthermore it is very doubtful that consumers are really misled by a large difference between the recommended price and that charged.
2. Prices which are recommended to retailers only certainly work like vertical price fixing sometimes, but not always. Apart from this objection, the least plausible of Reich's theses is that a prohibition of recommended prices would eliminate concerted pricing behaviour. This would be true only if the recommendations were the main cause of such behaviour. This view must be questioned because the development and the practice of concerted pricing is linked with specific market structures which cannot be eliminated by the prohibition of recommended prices.
3. Therefore, by prohibiting recommended prices one cannot expect greater retailer resistance to high prices. In addition, there seems to be no chance to strengthen price resistance of consumers by an abolition of the institute. This would suppose a very intensive comparing of prices, which is not be expected in the case of low price products. On the other hand, the consumer will compare prices if he wants to buy a very expensive or long-lasting article. In this case recommended prices are very helpful, because they indicate the highest possible price of a product, and it facilitates price bargaining if the consumer knows both recommended and actual selling prices of several traders.

The author's discussion shows that the dispute about the importance of recommended prices suffers above all from not differentiating between products which are bought and consumed daily and durable goods. Furthermore, the previous articles are one-sided in that they concentrate almost entirely on prices. If one takes product quality into consideration as well, one will find that the present Law offers a good chance to ensure that products are supplied in a constant or improved quality. Recommended prices should therefore only be allowed if the manufacturer submits to recurrent quality controls of his products. The advantages of recommended prices pointed out in the article adhere only to price recommendations which are made known to all consumers; therefore, recommendations intended for retailers only should be prohibited.     

Nachhaltiges Marketing im Schweizer Detailhandel: Das Beispiel Migros

Zusammenfassung  Wird das Thema Nachhaltigkeit vom Marketing mit allen seinen Aspekten aufgegriffen, hat das Auswirkungen auf die gesamte Wertsch?pfungskette. Die Schweizer Einzelhandelskette Migros begann bereits im Jahr 1973 damit ihren Kunden Produkte aus integrierter Produktion anzubieten. L?ngst ist daraus ein umfassendes nachhaltiges Konzept entstanden, dessen Kern ein eigenes Label dokumentiert. Somit gelingt es der Migros die drei zentralen Aspekte des nachhaltigen Handelns — ?kologische, soziale und ?konomische Dimensionen — umzusetzen.     

Schwachstellen der Werbeselbstkontrolle: Aufgezeigt am Beispiel des Deutschen Werberats

Weaknesses of advertising self-control: The case of the “Deutscher Werberat» (German Advertising Council, DWR). The paper scrutinizes the activities of DWR, the most important self-regulatory institution of German advertising business, founded in 1972. Its ten members come from the industry, the media, and the advertising agencies and professions. Consumers are not represented on the board; there is only a committee for co-ordinating contacts with the leading German organization, namely Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Verbraucher. DWR invites complaints from everybody about indecent, misleading, and unfair advertising. The main guideline of DWR is the code of the International Chamber of Commerce, the ICC Rules. DWR has hardly any possibilities to sanction those firms that infringe the rules; it can ask for only voluntary compliance with its opinions. In order to understand how DWR really works, the author examined advertisements in different German magazines (e. g.,Stern, Der Spiegel) from June 1976 to December 1978. For about 320 of those, published by well-known German and foreign firms, he filed complaints to DWR because of alleged contravention of advertising rules. They constituted a large part of the complaints received by DWR since in total, the Council dealt with about 670 complaints during that period. 73.9% of the author's complaints were not accepted by DWR (see Table 1 of the paper). The following weak points of the self-controlling system were discovered:

1. Complaint handling takes an extraordinary long time: an average of 32 days for complaints which were successfully filed (see Table 2). This means that a suspect advertisement can appear for quite some time before it is stopped by the opinion of DWR.
2. There are, in the view of the author, many wrong decisions, especially in cases of misleading advertising (ambiguous, hyperbolical, incomplete, untrue claims). Fifty-two of the advertisements which had been judged acceptable by DWR could be stopped with the help of other institutions.
3. The procedure of complaint handling gives cause for criticism, for instance, in cases of ambiguity, interpretations usually favour the advertiser. Of the complainant, DWR demands proof that an advertiser's claim is untrue, whereas the advertiser remains in the clear if he makes some vague statements to the effect that the claim is true or the complainant's arguments are incorrect.

The author concludes by making some proposals for reform of the self-regulatory system and for the increase of its efficiency. In his opinion, self-regulation does not exclude government intervention in advertising, however.     

Die Verbraucheransprüche und ihre Geltendmachung durch Verbraucherverbände nach der UWG-Novelle

According to West German civil law, consumers who have become victims of false or misleading competition have only limited rights with regard to compensation and withdrawal — this is a predominant opinion in the FRG. For this reason the Federal Government plans to amend the Law on Unfair Competition, with the intention of strengthening consumer protection. The bill was formulated by government experts but experienced several restrictions even before parliament discussions began. The author argues that the government bill will not reach its originally intended purposes. It does not assume that unfair competition in itself leads to the making of a contract. Instead the consumer has to prove that a specific instance of advertising was the (only) reason for the completion of a transaction. This condition will make the new law ineffective. According to the bill the consumer himself has the burden of proving the falsehood of advertising; only in this case is he allowed to demand the difference between the real value of an article and that value advertising has promised. This is a very dubious condition of the bill. The second part of the article deals with the rules specifying the right of consumer associations to sue. They must be seen as an impediment to the activities of the associations. The introduction of registration procedures will cause them additional costs. In the third part, the author maintains that support of consumer associations is unavoidable for an effective strengthening of consumer interests. As everyone knows, it is not easy to approach courts, especially for lower class people. It should be the task of public consumer policies to make consumer associations attractive to these groups, and to supply them with juridical and material possibilities. The bill is not able to contribute to these purposes; in some parts it blocks effective work in the interests of consumers.     

Preiswahrnehmung komplexer Güter am Beispiel der Pkw-Nutzung

Zusammenfassung Ausgehend von einer zufälligen Beobachtung wurde an einer Zufallsstichprobe untersucht, ob die mit einem Pkw verbundenen Kosten unterschätzt werden. Es zeigte sich, daß es kein stabiles Urteil über die Nutzungskosten des Pkw gibt, und daß eine starke Tendenz zur Unterschätzung der Kosten gegenüber den nach betriebswirtschaftlichen Regeln geschätzten objektiven Kosten besteht. Zur Erklärung dieses Phänomens wurde vermutet, daß (a) es sich beim Kauf und der Nutzung eines Pkw um eine komplexe Kaufhandlung handelt, bei der unterschiedliche Kosten nicht zu einem einheitlichen Kostenurteil zusammengefaßt werden, (b) es sich dabei um keine selbständige Entscheidung handelt, (c) es sich beim Kauf und der Nutzung eines Pkw um die Realisierung eines eigenständigen Lebensziels handelt und (d) Kosteninformationen entsprechend der Theorie der kognitiven Dissonanz abgewehrt werden.

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The perception of prices of complex goods: The example of cars

Initiated by an incidental observation, a study was made of the extent to which people underrate the costs of a private car. It turned out that the user's judgement of the cost of possessing and driving a car was quite unreliable, and that there was a strong tendency to give a substantially lower estimate than the figure calculated according to the rules of investment planning used in business economics.Several explanations for this phenomenon are advanced: (1) that the purchase and use of a car (and many other goods) is a complex act, in which one never totals different costs; (2) that the use of a car, and perhaps even the purchase, is not the result of a real decision; (3) that the purchase and use of a car is an important goal in life with a high intrinsic value; and (4) that cost information is warded off as predicted by the theory of cognitive dissonance.

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Walter Molt ist Akademischer Oberrat an der Universität Augsburg, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlicher Fachbereich, Memminger Str. 14, D-8900 Augsburg. Die Befragungen, die Grundlage des vorliegenden Beitrages sind, wurden von Helmut Stapf im Rahmen seiner Diplomarbeit durchgeführt.     

Neue Produkte schneller am Markt: Vorsprung durch Innovationslabors

Innovative Produkte systematisch und schnell zugleich zu entwickeln, ist für viele Unternehmen heute eine überlebensnotwendige Aufgabe. Konsumenten sollten daher früh in der Entwicklungsphase und nicht erst in der Testphase eingebunden werden. Innovationsmanagement muss zudem m?glichst alle berührten Abteilungen im Unternehmen einbeziehen. Dies erfordert besondere Instrumente. Innovationslabore sind ein Konzept, das die komplexen Anforderungen an das Innovationsmanagement extrem gut bedienen kann.     

Kleinkindbetreuung: Wahlfreiheit durch subventionierte Krippenplätze?

In der aktuellen Debatte über die Betreuung von Kleinkindern wird über die Wahlfreiheit der Eltern zwischen verschiedenen Betreuungsm?glichkeiten und deren Finanzierung gestritten. Welche Gründe gibt es für die Subventionierung von Krippenpl?tzen? Wie steht es um ihre ordnungspolitische Rechtfertigung? Ist ein Mangel an Krippenpl?tzen eine Folge von Marktversagen? Welche Verzerrungen k?nnen durch die Subventionierung ausgel?st werden? Vera Bünnagel, 30, Dipl.-Volkswirtin, ist Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Otto-Wolff-Institut für Wirtschaftsordnung und am Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik an der Universit?t zu K?ln; Dr. Barbara Henman, 41, ist Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik an der Universit?t zu K?ln. Die Autorinnen danken Benedikt Langner für wertvolle Anregungen und Diskussionen. Der Beitrag entstand im Rahmen des Otto-Wolff-Forschungsprojekts „Die Rolle des Staates bei der Kinderbetreuung“.