Documents Schratzenstaller, Margit 16 results

"Beset by an unprecedented combination of challenges including globalisation, demographic shifts, high unemployment and climate change, Europe is in dire need of a new kind of growth and development strategy. The authors of this Forum make compelling arguments for a socioecological transition, in which traditional measures of progress like GDP growth are downplayed in favour of factors such as social inclusion, environmental welfare, high levels of employment and the well-being of European citizens. This Forum explores some of the issues that must be resolved in order to fully achieve the socio-ecological transition, including the necessary decoupling of non-renewable energy use from GDP growth, the reduction of income and wealth inequalities, and the encouragement of innovation that is not based on fossil fuel technology. The Forum presents an optimistic path forward for the continent, with practical policy solutions that do not ignore the many obstacles facing a successful transition."

"Speculative trading, especially in the financial derivatives markets, not only increases the volatility of exchange rates, prices for raw materials and share prices over the short run but also over the long run, driving these prices away from their "fundamental" equilibriums: long-term upward or downward trends are the result of an accumulation of very short-term price "runs". A general financial transaction tax (FTT) would make short-term transactions in the derivatives markets more expensive and thus help stabilise exchange rates, raw material prices and share prices. The study estimates the revenues to be obtained from a general FTT for European countries, major regions and on a global scale. For Austria, a tax rate of 0.1 percent should yield 0.62 percent of GDP; a tax rate of 0.01 percent would produce 0.21 percent of GDP. In Germany, revenues from tax rates of 0.1 percent, 0.05 percent and 0.01 percent would be 1.50 percent, 1.07 percent and 0.47 percent of GDP, respectively. For the global eonomy in total, a tax rate of 0.1 percent or 0.01 percent would produce 1.52 percent or 0.49 percent of the global GDP. In Europe and North America, a general FTT would yield approximately the same amount (between 2.2 percent and 0.7 percent of GDP)."

"In einem zeitgemäßen Abgabensystem spielen vermögensbezogene Steuern eine wichtige Rolle: nicht nur als Umverteilungsinstrument, sondern auch als im Vergleich zu anderen Abgabenkategorien sehr wachstums- und beschäftigungsverträgliche Steuerquellen. Österreich sollte daher die vermögensbezogenen Steuern, die derzeit ein geringes Gewicht haben, stärken und mit den zusätzlichen Einnahmen vor allem die unteren und mittleren Arbeitseinkommen entlasten."

"The most prominent and debated issues in the negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework for the EU for the period 2014–2020 were the overall budget volume, the structure of expenditures and the continuation of the rebates for (some) net contributor countries. However, the system of the EU's own resources was hardly addressed in the negotiations, although it is one of the most important obstacles to reform. This article reviews the most important deficits of the current system of own resources and assesses the most substantial reform proposal which has been advocated for years by the European Commission, namely to fi nance part of the EU budget through EU taxes."

" The relationship between government size and growth has received an enormous attention in the economics literature, and the recent financial crisis has forced this topic back on the agenda. A highly controversial debate in this respect is whether large governments are harmful for growth. Endogenous growth theory provides us with the view that tax structure and the composition of public expenditure may be important for growth, perhaps even more than total tax or expenditure levels. Government size and structure are, however, also reflected in the level and structure of market regulations, which may substitute or complement fiscal intervention. The study provides an overview of the growth-friendliness of fiscal and regulatory structures in a cross-section of EU 15 and EU 12 countries and highly developed OECD countries. Peripheral European (transition) countries are also included, whenever respective data are available. Our analysis is based on several measures capturing the expenditure and the tax side of the budgets, as well as regulatory policies. It is shown that the size and the structure of fiscal and regulatory regimes and, hence, the expected long-run growth impact of government activities, still differ markedly across countries."