Most tax subsidies in Germany are unnecessary, unjust, and ought to be eliminated. This is the result of a study commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and performed by a consortium of two leading German research institutes: the FIFO Institute for Public Economics at the University of Cologne and the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research  (ZEW) and Copenhagen Economics.

Economists from the consortium examined the 20 largest German federal tax subsidies, looking at their scope, effectiveness, transparency and not the least their cost to the federal budget. It has been widely acclaimed by the German press: “The result is an interesting study, but would still like many other of its kind have landed in the closet, would it not have been for the attention it received from the customer – the Federal Ministry of Finance.” *

*Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8.12.2009

Selected press coverage of the study:
 

Welt

Süddeutsche Zeitung

Spiegel

Financial Times Deutschland

Handelblatt 

Bild

Rheinische Post 

Kölnische Rundschau

Junge Welt
 

Read the report here

For further information, please contact Managing Economist Helge Sigurd Næss-Schmidt