Steinkohlebergbau: Subventionierung um jeden Preis?

Manuel Frondel / Rainer Kambeck / Christoph M. Schmidt
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Christoph M. Schmidt and Manuel Frondel

Chapter 1 in List Forum Band 33, 2007, vol. 1, pp 1-17 from List Gesellschaft e.V.

Abstract: German hard coal has been subsidized for almost five decades. Despite the decreasing labour market significance of hard coal production in Germany, the magnitude of subsidies had increased until the middle of the last decade. In 1996, these subsidies peaked at around 6.7 billion Euros. Only since then, hard coal subsidies have been shrinking - reaching a level of about 2.7 billion Euros in 2005. In nominal terms, the accumulated amount of subsidies has now reached almost 130 billion Euros. Given that it is not well-accepted that public households are in serious imbalance, the continued subsidization of hard coal is more than surprising. Most importantly, these subsidies constitute a substantial opportunity cost, leading funds away from alternative, more beneficial public investments. Alternatively, the accelerated reduction of these subsidies may dampen the deficit of public households. This article investigates the typical, frequently reiterated arguments in favour of hard coal subsidization. From an economic perspective that aims at improving the welfare of the society, none of these arguments is convincing. We therefore recommend the abolition of this most significant single subsidy in Germany. (Original text only available in german language)

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lst:lfchap:33-01

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in List Forum Chapter from List Gesellschaft e.V. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lukas Wnuk Lipinski ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).