Working papers
Publications
CRC volumes
Oxford Handbook
 
Last updated on: 2009-01-16
Publications > TranState working paper: How Labour Ended Up Taxing Itself: The Political Consequences of a Century of Self-transformation of the German Welfare State		 Deutsche Version  
   
 
How Labour Ended Up Taxing Itself: The Political Consequences of a Century of Self-transformation of the German Welfare State
   
This paper investigates the long-term evolution of the tax system in Germany to explain why the political left has increasingly expanded taxation to its own clientele. The paper contrasts the second half of the 19th with the second half of the 20th century to show that some of the underlying parameters of tax systems have changed over time. In particular these are the existence of a mature welfare state and the significance of real wages as a tax base. Moreover, the paper selectively uses comparisons with the United Kingdom (UK) to show that where these conditions are absent the structure of the tax system is very different and taxes labour much less than in Germany. In this sense the British self-transformation of the welfare state has had very different political consequences than the German.
No. 080/2009
Achim Kemmerling

Download
zip-file [Download] approx. 183 kB
pdf-file [Download] approx. 202 kB
 
 
  TopTop