Documents Fuest, Clemens 27 results

"Europa kommt aus den Krisen nicht heraus. Seit fast sieben Jahren prägt die Verschuldungskrise im Euroraum die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung. Im vergangenen Jahr kam die Migrationskrise dazu, und nun hat der Brexit die Europäische Union (EU) erschüttert. Sowohl die EU als auch die Eurozone sind reformbedürftig. Der Beitrag diskutiert den Stand der ökonomischen Anpassungen nach der Finanzkrise und dem Ausbruch der Verschuldungskrise und erläutert das Reformkonzept der „Accountability Bonds“, einer neuen Klasse von Staatsanleihen, die dazu beitragen soll, die fiskalische Governance in der Eurozone zu verbessern."

"Derzeit vergeht kaum ein Tag, ohne dass Meldungen über wachsende Ungleichheit Schlagzeilen machen. Nach einer Studie von Credit Suisse besitzen 0,7 Prozent der Weltbevölkerung 45 Prozent des Vermögens. Die Organisation Oxfam behauptet, das Vermögen der Reichen sei in den letzten fünf Jahren um 44 Prozent gestiegen, das der Armen um 41 Prozent gefallen. Der französische Ökonom Thomas Piketty warnt vor einer Gesellschaft, in der Einkommen immer ungleicher werden. Als Reaktion darauf fordern viele eine höhere Besteuerung der ‚Reichen‘ und einen Ausbau des Sozialstaates. Diese Debatte wirft im Kern drei Fragen auf. Erstens: Nimmt die Ungleichheit von Einkommen und Vermögen tatsächlich zu, werden die Armen also immer ärmer und die Reicher immer reicher? Zweitens: Wie ist die Entwicklung in Deutschland im Vergleich zu anderen Ländern? Drittens: Sollte die deutsche Politik reagieren und falls ja, wie? Die wichtigste Antwort auf diese Fragen lautet: Die These allgemein wachsender Armut und Ungleichheit ist falsch. Die weltweite Armut hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten drastisch abgenommen, die Einkommensungleichheit ist zurückgegangen. Das ist eine Folge des Aufstiegs der Schwellenländer. In den reichen Industrieländern wächst die Ungleichheit der „Markteinkommen“. Aber letztlich kommt es auf die „verfügbaren Einkommen“ an, also die Einkommen nach Steuern und Transfers, die jeder letztlich ausgeben kann. Der Sozialstaat federt die zunehmende Ungleichheit ab. In Deutschland wird mehr umverteilt als in fast allen anderen Ländern. Der Anteil der ärmsten 25 Prozent der Bevölkerung an den verfügbaren Einkommen ist deshalb in den letzten 20 Jahren annähernd stabil geblieben. Vor diesem Hintergrund wirkt die aktuelle Ungleichheitsdebatte überzogen. Die Politik sollte sich darauf konzentrieren, den deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaat so zu reformieren, dass er auch künftig Absicherung bietet. Wie wirtschaftliche Ungleichheit sich entwickelt und welche Konsequenzen für die deutsche Politik sich daraus ergeben, lässt sich in zehn Thesen zusammenfassen."

"This paper estimates the incidence of corporate taxes on wages using a 20-year panel of German municipalities. Administrative linked employer-employee data allows estimating heterogeneous worker and firm effects. We set up a general theoretical framework showing that corporate taxes can have a negative effect on wages in various labor market models. Using an event study design, we test the predictions of the theory. Our results indicate that workers bear about 40% of the total tax burden. Empirically, we confirm the importance of both labor market institutions and profit shifting possibilities for the incidence of corporate taxes on wages."

"This paper estimates the incidence of corporate taxes on wages using a 20-year panel of German municipalities. Administrative linked employer-employee data allows estimating heterogeneous worker and firm effects. We set up a general theoretical framework showing that corporate taxes can have a negative effect on wages in various labor market models. Using an event study design, we test the predictions of the theory. Our results indicate that workers bear about 40% of the total tax burden. Empirically, we confirm the importance of both labor market institutions and profit shifting possibilities for the incidence of corporate taxes on wages."

"The current system for the financing of the EU needs to be reformed. This paper puts forth a reform proposal with two important elements: first, the addition of an EU VAT share on receipts; and second, a shift in power from the European Council to the European Parliament with regard to the determination of the structure of EU expenditures. The first element will make taxpayers' contributions to the EU more visible, thereby increasing their interest in the EU budget and fostering democratic accountability. The second element will shift spending priorities away from projects that generate visible advantages to individual member states and towards policies that benefit the EU as a whole."

"The German experience of the crisis was very different compared to those of most other countries in Europe. Germany was hit by a very strong shock which was relatively concentrated in the exporting, manufacturing industries. In addition, the German labour market was very resilient during the crisis due to earlier labour market reforms and policy instruments facilitating labour hoarding. As a consequence, public finances were only moderately affected and not many policy reforms had to be enacted. This chapter will present the German experience of the financial crisis. We start by presenting the macroeconomic situation and how the crisis unfolded in Germany, before focusing on the situation of public finances. Finally, we analyse the policy responses to the financial crisis."

"We analyze different alternatives how a common unemployment insurance system for the euro area (EA) could be designed and assess their effectiveness to act as an insurance device in the presence of asymmetric macroeconomic shocks. Running counterfactual simulations based on micro data for the period 2000-13, we highlight and quantify the trade-off between automatic stabilization effects and the degree of cross-country transfers. In the baseline, we focus on a non-contingent scheme covering short-term unemployment and find that it would have absorbed a significant fraction of the unemployment shock in the recent crisis. However, 5 member states of the EA18 would have been either a permanent net contributor or net recipient. Our results suggest that claw-back mechanisms and contingent benefits could limit the degree of cross-country redistribution, but might reduce desired insurance effects. We also discuss moral hazard issues at the level of individuals, the administration and economic policy."

"The 2008-09 crisis has shown that some euro area member countries were unable to sufficiently stabilize their economies which has given rise to a debate about deeper fiscal integration in Europe. In this paper, we analyze the redistributive and stabilizing effects of two scenarios of fiscal integration in the Eurozone, namely the introduction of i) a joint tax and transfer system that replaces 10 per cent of national systems and ii) a system of fiscal equalization that equalizes 10 per cent of differences in taxing capacity. Based on the European tax-benefit calculator EUROMOD and representative household micro data for the current 17 euro area member states, our conceptual experiment shows that a joint tax and transfer system would only lead to moderate gains in terms of stabilization while redistribution would flow especially towards the Eastern European member states. In contrast, a fiscal equalization mechanism that redistributes revenues across countries could even lead to destabilizing effects."

"The current debt crisis has given rise to a debate concerning deeper fiscal integration in Europe. The view is widespread that moving towards a ‘fiscal union' would have stabilizing effects in case of macroeconomic shocks. We study the economic effects of introducing two elements of a fiscal union: an EU-wide tax and transfer system and a fiscal equalization mechanism. Using the European tax-benefit calculator EUROMOD, we exploit representative household micro data from 11 eurozone countries to simulate these policy reforms and study their effects on the income distribution and automatic stabilizers. We find that replacing one third of the national tax-benefit systems with a European system would lead to significant redistributive effects both within and across countries. These effects depend on income levels and the structures of existing national systems. The EU system would particularly improve fiscal stabilization in credit constrained countries absorbing 10–15% of a macroeconomic income shock. Introducing a fiscal equalization mechanism would redistribute revenues from high to low income countries. However, the stabilization properties of this system are ambiguous. The results suggest that it might be necessary for Europe to explore alternative ways of improving macroeconomic stability without redistributing income ex ante."