Raimund Krumm

Air pollutant taxation: an empirical survey

Abstract This paper provides an empirical analysis of the current taxation of the air pollutants sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide in the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, France and Japan. Political motivation and technical factors such as tax base, rate structure and revenue use are compared. Conclusions are drawn characterizing the general concepts of the current policies.

Turning the Switch: An Evaluation of the Minimum Wage in the German Electrical Trade Using Repeated Natural Experiments

Abstract The introduction, abolition and subsequent re-introduction of the minimum wage in the German electrical trade gave rise to series of natural experiments, which are used to study minimum wage effects. We find similar impacts in all three cases on wages, employment and the receipt of public welfare benefits. Average wages are raised by the minimum wage in East Germany, but there is almost no evidence for employment effects. The results also show that the wage effect is quickly undone after the abolition of the minimum wage.

On the efficiency of environmental instruments in a spatial economy

This paper develops an efficiency criterion to evaluate environmental policy instruments in a spatial economy. We call an environmental policy regime at the regional level efficient if it guarantees not only an efficient distribution of emission permits within a region, but also an efficient locational pattern of mobile firms across the regions of a federation. Using marketable pollution rights or emission taxes, efficiency in this broad sense can only be achieved if revenues of regional environmental agencies are not transferred to regional firms. Direct controls neither support an efficient allocation of emission rights within a region nor locational efficiency of firms.

Das Konzept des "Regionalen Gewerbeflächenpools" aus ökonomischer Sicht

ZusammenfassungDas vorliegende Paper stellt den ersten Beitrag dar, der sich mit dem innovativen Konzept des ‚Regionalen Gewerbeflächenpools’ aus wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Sicht beschäftigt. Der hier analysierte — aus der kommunal- bzw. regionalpolitischen Praxis ‚kommende’ — Poolansatz geht über das bisher bekannte Konzept ‚Interkommunaler Gewerbegebiete’ räumlich und konzeptionell weit hinaus. Beim Konzept des Gewerbeflächenpools kommt es zu einer Poolbildung von in räumlicher Nähe zueinander stehenden Kommunen im Bereich der Gewerbeflächenpolitik. Die entsprechenden Mitgliedskommunen bringen dabei entweder Flächen- oder Geldeinlagen in den Pool ein. Die einzelnen Poolmitglieder profitieren dann nach Maßgabe ihres Poolanteils von den vom Pool ausgeschütteten Flächenverkaufserlösen und Gewerbesteuereinnahmen. Dadurch ergibt sich bei den entsprechenden Kommunaleinnahmen zwischen den Poolmitgliedern ein Risikoausgleich. Die Poolbildung föhrt zudem zu einer erhöhten ‚regionalen’ Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, was in Zeiten eines verstärkten ‚Wettbewerbs der Regionen’ ein besonders wichtiger Aspekt ist. Der Beitrag behandelt ausgewählte wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fragestellungen zum Poolkonzept, insbesondere aus kommunalökonomischer Sicht.AbstractThe paper at hand represents the first contribution dealing with the innovative concept of the ‚Regional Industrial Area Pool’ from an economic perspective. Coming from political practice on the local and regional level, respectively, the pool approach analyzed here goes — both spatially and conceptually — far beyond the traditional concept of ‚inter-municipal industrial areas’. In the regional industrial area pool concept municipalities which are spatially close to each other are cooperating in the field of industrial area policy. The respective member municipalities participate in the pool by industrial area or monetary contributions. The individual pool members, then, benefit according to their pool share from the pool’s distributed industrial area sale revenues and local business tax yield. Thus, there is a spread of risks in the respective municipal revenues between the pool members. Furthermore, inter-municipal pooling leads to an enhanced ‚regional’ competitiveness which is a particularly important aspect in times of an increased ‚competition of regions’. The paper deals with selected economic questions regarding the pool concept, especially from a municipal-economic perspective.