Gegenstand der Arbeit ist die Bestimmung von optimalen Produktions- programmen öffentlicher Unternehmen mit Hilfe von Schattenpreisen und geeigneten Verhaltensvorschriften für die Manager dieser Unternehmen. Zur Ableitung finanzpolitisch relevanter Ergebnisse wird dabei der Tatsache Rechnung getragen, dass der Handlungsbereich des Finanzpolitikers bestimmten institutionell und/oder politisch begründeten Beschränkungen unterworfen ist. Die präsentierten Modelle sind der Ökonomie des Zweitbesten oder Second-Best zuzurechnen.
In its Annual Report 2003/2004, the German Council of Economic Experts launched a dual income tax as an option for a fundamental tax reform in Germany. In February 2005, the German government appointed the Council to prepare a detailed report on economic effects of a business tax reform, with special emphasis on a dual income tax. With regard to the latter, conceptual problems of tax law and of tax administration were to be addressed as well as possible transitional problems when implementing a dual income tax. This book presents an English version of the original report completed in April 2006.
This book employs a computable general equilibrium framework to assess recent value-added tax reform proposals in the European Union from a welfare perspective. Following the 1985 "White Paper" on the internal European market, a vigorous debate emerged regarding tax barriers to free trade. The European Commission initially planned to eliminate both physical border controls and fiscal frontiers within the EU by January 1, 1993. This shift in value-added taxation aimed to replace the destination principle with the origin principle. Although some economists supported the origin principle for a unified European value-added tax system, the timing was not conducive for such a change. By December 1991, the ECOFIN Council could only agree on a transitional system that preserves the destination principle while transferring border tax procedures from national borders to firms. This transitional arrangement was set to expire on December 31, 1996, with a final decision on value-added taxation to be made by the ECOFIN Council by December 1995. If no decision is reached, the transitional measures will continue. The most probable outcome involves a shift to the origin principle, accompanied by a clearing mechanism to mitigate significant revenue shifts among member states.
