Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Volume 60 Issue 2

Issue of Review of Economics

Contents
Journal Overview

April 19, 2016

Zur Internationalisierung des Dienstleistungssektors

Georg Koopmann, Thomas Straubhaar

Page range: 81-102

Abstract

Advances in information and communication technology and especially the Internet have increasingly facilitated the provision of services across national borders. To a growing extent, foreign trade in services is also indispensable to the proper functioning of international value-added chains in both the goods and the services sector. At the same time, while the internationalisation in services has been proceeding even faster than that in goods, its degree is still relatively low, which indicates a high potential for further growth. The removal of the many barriers that still obstruct international services trade would produce substantial and widely spread welfare gains. Due to the intermediary function of services, liberalisation in this area would also boost the international competitiveness of goods-producing industries. This mostly holds for manufacturing in developing countries. On the other hand, the argument that the outsourcing or offshoring of services might involve major employment losses in industrialised countries appears to be ill-founded. The liberalisation of trade in services could be greatly enhanced through a shift in multilateral negotiating techniques: replacing the positive-list approach, which currently prevails, through a procedure primarily relying on negative lists with closely specified exceptions could contain the negative influence of vested interests in this trade policy field and thus aid the common welfare.

April 19, 2016

Policy Implications of Global Asymmetric Current Account Positions

Gunther Schnabl, Stephan Freitag

Page range: 103-137

Abstract

Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich mit den globalen Ungleichgewichten unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Asymmetrien im Weltwährungssystem. Die Vereinigten Staaten und der Euroraum (Deutschland) werden als Zentren mit steigenden Leistungsbilanzdefiziten (Vereinigte Staaten) und steigenden Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen (Deutschland) identifiziert. Die Ungleichgewichte in den Zentren werden flankiert von Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen in Ländern mit Wechselkursbindung an den Dollar (Dollar-Peripherie) und Leistungsbilanzdefiziten in Ländern mit Wechselkursbindung an den Euro (Euro-Peripherie). Es wird gezeigt, dass Veränderungen der globalen Leistungsbilanzpositionen von makroökonomischen Entscheidungen in den Zentren bestimmt sind. Insbesondere beeinflussen die expansive Geld- und Fiskalpolitik der Vereinigten Staaten die Überschüsse in den Ländern der Dollar-Peripherie. Begründet ist dieser Zusammenhang auch in der Sterilisierungspolitik der Dollar-Peripherie- Länder, die zu steigenden Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen beiträgt. Um die globalen Leistungsbilanzungleichgewichte auszugleichen, ist vor allem eine restriktive Makropolitik in den Vereinigten Staaten geboten.

April 19, 2016

Implizite und explizite Lohnsteuerbelastung in Deutschland

Martin Gasche

Page range: 138-167

Abstract

Social insurance contributions include an implicit tax portion if the contributions are higher than the benefits. For the first time, this implicit tax burden is calculated for the entire German social security system regarding income groups, age groups and sex. There is evidence that the implicit tax burden is throughout relatively high. The age-specific tax structure is characterized by an inversely U-shaped curve: The implicit tax burden is weaker for young and older employees subject to social insurance than for employees of the in-between generation. The income-specific tax profiles indicate a negative wage tax for insured with low income and then a strong progressive trend. On a higher level of income, the burden has a regressive course. The combination of implicit wage tax caused by social security system and explicit wage tax caused by income tax system makes the regressive course of tax burden on high income level disappear, so that a progressive wage tax scale with a negative component for lower incomes can be observed.

April 19, 2016

Redistributional Consequences of Decentralizing the Tax-Transfer Scheme

Tim Lohse

Page range: 168-180

Abstract

Zusammenfassung Ausgehend von dem Umstand, dass Umverteilung in einem Föderalstaat zwei Dimensionen hat - zum einen die Einkommensumverteilung zwischen reicheren und ärmeren Bevölkerungsteilen und zum anderen die Umverteilung von reicheren zu ärmeren Regionen - analysiert der Aufsatz die Fragen, wie Steuern und Transfers ausgestaltet sein sollten und welche staatliche Ebene überhaupt die steuerliche Gesetzgebungskompetenz haben muss, damit diese beiden Arten der Umverteilung in wohlfahrtsmaximierender Weise verwirklicht werden können. Mittels eines Modells mit zwei Regionen und einer die Föderation regierenden Zentralregierung werden hierzu verschiedene Szenarien der Zentralisierung bzw. Dezentralisierung des Steuer- Transfer-Systems im Hinblick auf ihre regionalen und föderalen Umverteilungswirkungen miteinander verglichen. Die Analyse belegt, dass regionsspezifische Steuer- Transfer-Systeme in Verbindung mit einer pauschalen Umverteilung von der reichen zur armen Region optimal sind. Dabei kann es sogar durchaus gesamtwirtschaftlich sinnvoll sein, so stark zwischen den beiden Regionen umzuverteilen, dass sich das Verhältnis von armer und reicher Region umkehrt.

About this journal

Welcome! As of 2016 the Review of Economics as well as all other journals of Lucius and Lucius Verlagsgesellschaft are published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Aims and Scope
The Review of Economics (Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftswissenschaften) is a peer-reviewed general interest journal and publishes articles from all fields of economics.
Only articles with a strong policy focus are considered for publication. The Review of Economics will consider papers that are based on (i) a well defined theoretical model (ii) an empirical analysis or (iii) an experimental or (iv) an evidence-based framework.
The Review of Economics is also highly interested in survey articles on important policy issues.
Since the Review of Economics intends to deliver a forum for policy contributions and to influence the public debate we guarantee a quick and efficient referee process (the initial publication decision will be made within a maximum of 90 days). The editors may decide to publish papers without a referee process whenever authors send their submissions together with the referee reports and the decision letter of the previous submission and explain how they reacted to the reports. Accepted articles will be pre-published on the internet page of the journal as soon as they are accepted. Because the Review of Economics is not an e-Journal all articles also appear in a regular print version with some delay.

Partner Journal
Czech Journal of Economics and Finance

The Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (ISSN 0015-1920) is an English-language, double-blind refereed academic journal published in Prague since 1951. It devotes special attention to monetary economics, public finance, financial economics, and international economics, but it is open to high-quality papers from all fields of modern economics. The editors prefer empirically oriented papers, but do not exclude review articles or theoretical contributions provided that they are of high quality and relevant to the journal's aims.