Every year the German Federal Insurance Office distributes more than 200 billion euros from the healthcare fund to the statutory health insurance providers. The allocation of these funds is, however, somewhat…
All the political parties pledged in their campaign manifestos to encourage the digitalisation of Germany’s economy and society. This is a good thing. Armed with buzzwords like “Industry 4.0” and “digital hubs”…
Recently, the Federal Minister of Transport, Alexander Dobrindt, announced a 350-million-euro subsidy for 2018, designed to lower track charges for freight transport and encourage shippers to move from roads to…
As the upcoming Bundestag elections in Germany draw nearer, state pensions have again become a key issue for the main political parties. While the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has laid out its own…
World Environment Day took place on 5 June. This year’s theme was “Connecting People to Nature”. Critics of environmental protection policies such as US President Donald Trump, who recently announced the US’s…
The majority of French voters rejected Marine Le Pen, the right-wing presidential candidate from the populist party Front National. Emmanuel Macron, the former economy minister under President François…
60 years ago in Rome, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed a treaty establishing both the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. Following on…
The "Magic Square" (Magisches Viereck) is a concept many Germans learn about in school. It describes the four cornerstones of Germany's economy, enshrined in the 1967 Act to Promote Economic Stability and…
Economic truths can be cruel. In 1993, the University of Minnesota’s Joel Waldfogel published a famous article about the deadweight loss that occurs at Christmas. According to his analysis, billions are lost…
