Wie sollte das Steuersystem in Deutschland reformiert werden?

Some authors focus on the fact that Germany shows one of the highest tax burdens among the OECD countries. Based on their analysis, they suggest approaches to reduce the tax burden in particular for lower and medium incomes. These tax reliefs are possible, and would not compromise new public investment. But decreases in personal income tax rates mainly relieve higher income earners and are accompanied by high tax losses if the top tax rates are not increased. Alternatives are relief for social contributions or VAT. Other researchers do not look at the tax burden this way: as the income tax burden in Germany is not high from a historical perspective or by international standards, there is no case for massive tax cuts, as this would jeopardise the government’s ability to act and fail to correct past shifts of the tax burden at the expense of households with low incomes. Any tax cuts should be targeted at the bottom half of the income distribution without creating any revenue shortfalls. Instead, the government would be well advised to increase its efforts to overcome the public investment backlog and ensure a well functioning civil service. Furthermore, sustainability oriented tax reforms should focus on a shift of the tax burden from taxes on labour towards environmental and wealth based taxes.     

Saving,investment, and capital mobility: A comment on Leachman

In this note we use a consistent long-run data set recently published by Maddison (1991) for 10 countries to examine the long-run relationship between saving and investment. In contrast to recent findings of Leachman (1991) we conclude that saving and investment are cointegrated in many countries. Our results suggest that aggregate demand and supply shocks explain much of the time series correlation between total saving and investment.     

Why did the Tariff–Growth Correlation Change after 1950?

This article uses a new database to establish a key finding: high tariffs were associated with fast growth before World War II, while they have been associated with slow growth thereafter. The paper offers explanations for the sign switch by controlling for novel measures of the changing world economic environment. Rejecting alternative explanations based on changing export market growth or transportation cost declines, it shows how the modern negative correlation could be reversed in a world environment characterized by a moderately higher generalized tariff protection such as that which prevailed before 1914. We show that an increase in average tariff rates among trading partners by just one third might suffice to reverse any negative relationship between an average country's tariffs and its growth. An increase in own tariffs after 1950 hurt or at least didn't help growth, but it might have helped growth in a world where average trading partners' tariffs were moderately higher and retaliation was the best strategy. The world environment matters. Leader-country reaction to big world events matters.     

Corporate Taxes in the European Union

The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007 by a number of countries with comparatively low corporate tax rates – seen by some as representing an unfair competitive advantage – has refuelled the debate on corporate taxation in Europe. The present Forum highlights a number of pertinent issues and discusses the challenges implied for European corporate tax policy. *The authors are indebted to Andreas Reutter for helpful comments. **The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author. They should not be attributed to the European Commission. The author wishes to thank Anton Jevcav for valuable comments. ? European Communities, 2007.     

Beschäftigungs- und Finanzierungswirkungen von Kombilohnmodellen

Derzeit werden verschiedene Kombilohnmodelle zur Bek?mpfung der Arbeitslosigkeit von Niedrigqualifizierten diskutiert. Wie unterscheiden sich diese Modelle? Welche Wirkungen haben sie auf das Arbeitsangebot? Welche Kosten sind damit verbunden? Prof. Dr. Clemens Fuest, 38, ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Finanzwissenschaft an der Universit?t zu K?ln und Vorsitzender des Wissenschaftlichen Beirates beim Bundesministerium der Finanzen; Andreas Peichl, 28, Dipl.-Volkswirt, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Seminar für Finanzwissenschaft der Universit?t zu K?ln; Thilo Schaefer, 29, Dipl.-Volkswirt, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Finanzwissenschaftlichen Forschungsinstitut an der Universit?t zu K?ln.     

Anhebung der Regelaltersgrenze und Abschläge bei vorzeitigem Renteneintritt

Anfang des Jahres haben Bundestag und Bundesrat die Anhebung der Regelaltersgrenze von 65 auf 67 Jahre ab 2012 beschlossen. Was bedeutet diese Ma?nahme für die Abschl?ge bei vorzeitigem Renteneintritt? Welcher Einfluss geht von der parallel dazu steigenden Lebenserwartung aus? Sollten die Abschl?ge anreizneutral oder beitragsstabilisierend ausgestaltet werden? Johannes Clemens, 45, Dipl.-?konom, ist als Referent für Sozialpolitik in der volkswirtschaftlichen Abteilung der Deutschen Bundesbank t?tig und Mitglied des Sozialbeirats, der die Bundesregierung in Fragen der Rentenpolitik ber?t. Der Autor gibt in diesem Beitrag seine pers?nliche Meinung wieder.