[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ifowps/_302.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Real Estate Transfer Tax and Government Ideology: Evidence from the German States

Author

Listed:
  • Manuela Krause
  • Niklas Potrafke
Abstract
Since 2007 the German state governments have been allowed by a constitutional reform to set real estate transfer tax rates. We exploit this reform and investigate whether government ideology predicts the levels and increases in the real estate transfer tax rates. The results show that leftwing and center governments were more active in increasing the real estate transfer tax rates than rightwing governments. Many voters were disenchanted with the policies and platforms of the established German parties. Disenchantment notwithstanding, real estate transfer tax policies show that the established political parties are still prepared to offer polarized policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2019. "The Real Estate Transfer Tax and Government Ideology: Evidence from the German States," ifo Working Paper Series 302, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifowps:_302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/wp-2019-302-krause-potrafke-real-estate-transfer-tax-germany_4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freier, Ronny & Odendahl, Christian, 2015. "Do parties matter? Estimating the effect of political power in multi-party systems," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 310-328.
    2. Kunka Petkova & Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2017. "Price and Quantity Effects of the German Real Estate Transfer Tax," CESifo Working Paper Series 6538, CESifo.
    3. Potrafke Niklas, 2011. "Public Expenditures on Education and Cultural Affairs in the West German States: Does Government Ideology Influence the Budget Composition?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 124-145, February.
    4. Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "Dragnet-Controls and Government Ideology," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 485-501, July.
    5. Zohlnhöfer, Reimut, 2003. "Partisan Politics, Party Competition and Veto Players: German Economic Policy in the Kohl Era," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 123-156, May.
    6. Niklas Potrafke, 2018. "Government ideology and economic policy-making in the United States—a survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 145-207, January.
    7. Hibbs, Douglas A., 1977. "Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(4), pages 1467-1487, December.
    8. Niklas Potrafke, 2012. "Is German domestic social policy politically controversial?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 393-418, December.
    9. Jakob Haan & Jeroen Klomp, 2013. "Conditional political budget cycles: a review of recent evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 387-410, December.
    10. Büttner, Thiess, 2017. "Welfare Cost of the Real Estate Transfer Tax," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168308, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Buettner Thiess & Krause Manuela, 2018. "Föderalismus im Wunderland: Zur Steuerautonomie bei der Grunderwerbsteuer," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 32-41, March.
    12. Beramendi, Pablo & Rueda, David, 2007. "Social Democracy Constrained: Indirect Taxation in Industrialized Democracies," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 619-641, October.
    13. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    14. Tepe, Markus & Vanhuysse, Pieter, 2014. "A vote at the opera? The political economy of public theaters and orchestras in the German states," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 254-273.
    15. Fritzsche, Carolin & Vandrei, Lars, 2019. "The German real estate transfer tax: Evidence for single-family home transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 131-143.
    16. Elinder, Mikael & Jordahl, Henrik, 2013. "Political preferences and public sector outsourcing," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 43-57.
    17. Sebastian Garmann, 2018. "Political budget cycles and divided government," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(3), pages 444-456, March.
    18. Björn Kauder & Niklas Potrafke, 2013. "Government Ideology and Tuition Fee Policy: Evidence from the German States," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 59(4), pages 628-649, December.
    19. Niklas Potrafke, 2013. "Economic Freedom and Government Ideology across the German States," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 433-449, March.
    20. Thiess Buettner & Manuela Krause, 2021. "Fiscal equalization as a driver of tax increases: empirical evidence from Germany," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(1), pages 90-112, February.
    21. Sergej Bechtoldt & Ronny Freier & Johannes Geyer & Frank Kühn, 2014. "Acht Jahre nach der Reform der Grunderwerbsteuer: Bundesländer nutzen ihre Spielräume für Steuererhöhungen," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 81(50), pages 1283-1290.
    22. Zohlnhöfer, Reimut & Engler, Fabian & Dümig, Kathrin, 2018. "The Retreat of the Interventionist State in Advanced Democracies," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(2), pages 535-562, April.
    23. Che-Yuan Liang, 2013. "Is there an incumbency advantage or cost of ruling in proportional election systems?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 259-284, March.
    24. Björn Kauder & Niklas Potrafke & Christoph Schinke, 2017. "Manipulating Fiscal Forecasts: Evidence from the German States," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 73(2), pages 213-236, June.
    25. Potrafke Niklas & Riem Marina & Schinke Christoph, 2016. "Debt Brakes in the German States: Governments’ Rhetoric and Actions," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 253-275, May.
    26. Krause, Manuela & Büttner, Thiess, 2017. "Does Fiscal Equalization Lead to Higher Tax Rates? Empirical Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168214, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    27. Beate Jochimsen & Robert Nuscheler, 2011. "The political economy of the German Lander deficits: weak governments meet strong finance ministers," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(19), pages 2399-2415.
    28. Potrafke, Niklas & Roesel, Felix, 2020. "The urban–rural gap in healthcare infrastructure: does government ideology matter?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 54(3), pages 340-351.
    29. Tepe, Markus & Vanhuysse, Pieter, 2013. "Cops for hire? The political economy of police employment in the German states," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 165-199, August.
    30. Angelopoulos, Konstantinos & Economides, George & Kammas, Pantelis, 2012. "Does cabinet ideology matter for the structure of tax policies?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 620-635.
    31. Jochimsen, Beate & Thomasius, Sebastian, 2014. "The perfect finance minister: Whom to appoint as finance minister to balance the budget," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 390-408.
    32. Felix Rösel, 2017. "The Political Economy of Fiscal Supervision and Budget Deficits: Evidence from Germany," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 38, pages 641-666, December.
    33. Kenneth Rogoff & Anne Sibert, 1988. "Elections and Macroeconomic Policy Cycles," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 55(1), pages 1-16.
    34. Fritzsche, Carolin & Vandrei, Lars, 2019. "The German real estate transfer tax: Evidence for single-family home transactions," Munich Reprints in Economics 78276, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    35. Björn Kauder & Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "The growth in military expenditure in Germany 1951--2011: did parties matter?," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 503-519, August.
    36. Chappell, Henry W, Jr & Keech, William R, 1986. "Party Differences in Macroeconomic Policies and Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 71-74, May.
    37. Alberto Alesina, 1987. "Macroeconomic Policy in a Two-Party System as a Repeated Game," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(3), pages 651-678.
    38. Potrafke, Niklas, 2017. "Partisan politics: The empirical evidence from OECD panel studies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 712-750.
    39. Kauder, Björn & Potrafke, Niklas, 2016. "The growth in military expenditure in Germany 1951–2011," Munich Reprints in Economics 43518, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    40. Ulrich Oberndorfer & Viktor Steiner, 2007. "Generationen‐ oder Parteienkonflikt? Eine empirische Analyse der deutschen Hochschulausgaben," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(2), pages 165-183, March.
    41. Björn Kauder & Niklas Potrafke & Christoph Schinke, 2017. "Manipulating Fiscal Forecasts: Evidence from the German States," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 73(2), pages 213-236, June.
    42. William D. Nordhaus, 1975. "The Political Business Cycle," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 42(2), pages 169-190.
    43. Rogoff, Kenneth, 1990. "Equilibrium Political Budget Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 21-36, March.
    44. Kai Jäger, 2017. "Economic Freedom in the Early 21st Century: Government Ideology Still Matters," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(2), pages 256-277, May.
    45. Carolin Fritzsche & Lars Vandrei, 2016. "The German Land Transfer Tax: Evidence for Single-Family Home Transactions," ERES eres2016_135, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    46. Osterloh, Steffen & Debus, Marc, 2012. "Partisan politics in corporate taxation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 192-207.
    47. Niklas Potrafke, 2017. "Government Ideology and Economic Policy-Making in the United States," CESifo Working Paper Series 6444, CESifo.
    48. Helmut Herwartz & Bernd Theilen, 2014. "On the political and fiscal determinants of income redistribution under federalism and democracy: evidence from Germany," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 121-139, April.
    49. Jonas Klarin, 2020. "Bring Out the Steamrollers - It's Election Year Again!," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 76(1), pages 29-56.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clemens Fuest & Mathias Dolls & Carla Krolage & Florian Neumeier, 2019. "Who Bears the Burden of Real Estate Transfer Taxes? Evidence from the German Housing Market," ifo Working Paper Series 308, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    2. Thiess Buettner & Manuela Krause, 2021. "Fiscal equalization as a driver of tax increases: empirical evidence from Germany," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(1), pages 90-112, February.
    3. Buettner Thiess & Krause Manuela, 2018. "Föderalismus im Wunderland: Zur Steuerautonomie bei der Grunderwerbsteuer," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 32-41, March.
    4. Niklas Potrafke & Kaspar Wuthrich, 2020. "Green governments," Papers 2012.09906, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    5. Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "Dragnet-Controls and Government Ideology," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 485-501, July.
    6. Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2021. "Do Left-wing Governments Decrease Wage Inequality among Civil Servants? Empirical Evidence from the German States," Public Finance Review, , vol. 49(1), pages 106-135, January.
    7. Krause, Manuela & Büttner, Thiess, 2017. "Does Fiscal Equalization Lead to Higher Tax Rates? Empirical Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168214, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Christofzik, Désirée I. & Feld, Lars P. & Yeter, Mustafa, 2020. "Heterogeneous price and quantity effects of the real estate transfer tax in Germany," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 20/10, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    9. Thiess Büttner, 2017. "Welfare Cost of the Real Estate Transfer Tax," CESifo Working Paper Series 6321, CESifo.
    10. Manuela Krause, 2019. "Empirical essays on fiscal federalism and political economy in Germany," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 84.
    11. Fritzsche, Carolin & Vandrei, Lars, 2019. "The German real estate transfer tax: Evidence for single-family home transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 131-143.
    12. Carolin Fritzsche & Lars Vandrei, 2016. "Auswirkungen von Grunderwerbsteuererhöhungen auf den Wohnungsmarkt," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 23(06), pages 14-19, December.
    13. Luisa Dörr & Stefanie Gäbler, 2020. "Does Highway Accessibility Influence Local Tax Factors? Evidence from German Municipalities," ifo Working Paper Series 321, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    14. Jens Boysen-Hogrefe & Wolfgang Scherf & Carolin Dresselhaus & Thomas Schäfer & Kunka Petkova & Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Reiner Holznagel & Jens Lemmer & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke & Alfons Weic, 2017. "Stagnierende Wohneigentumsquote, Share Deals: Wie sollte die Grunderwerbsteuer reformiert werden?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 70(21), pages 03-24, November.
    15. Florian Dorn & Stefanie Gäbler & Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Luisa Lorenz & Niklas Potrafke & Alexander van Roessel & Luisa Dörr, 2017. "Demokratische Vielfalt in Deutschland – unterscheiden sich die Volksparteien noch?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 70(20), pages 28-37, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jens Boysen-Hogrefe & Wolfgang Scherf & Carolin Dresselhaus & Thomas Schäfer & Kunka Petkova & Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Reiner Holznagel & Jens Lemmer & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke & Alfons Weic, 2017. "Stagnierende Wohneigentumsquote, Share Deals: Wie sollte die Grunderwerbsteuer reformiert werden?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 70(21), pages 03-24, November.
    2. Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2021. "Do Left-wing Governments Decrease Wage Inequality among Civil Servants? Empirical Evidence from the German States," Public Finance Review, , vol. 49(1), pages 106-135, January.
    3. Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "Dragnet-Controls and Government Ideology," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 485-501, July.
    4. Manuela Krause, 2019. "Communal fees and election cycles: Evidence from German municipalities," ifo Working Paper Series 293, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    5. Potrafke, Niklas, 2020. "General or central government? Empirical evidence on political cycles in budget composition using new data for OECD countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    6. Potrafke Niklas & Riem Marina & Schinke Christoph, 2016. "Debt Brakes in the German States: Governments’ Rhetoric and Actions," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 253-275, May.
    7. Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2018. "Electoral cycles in MPs’ salaries: evidence from the German states," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(4), pages 981-1000, August.
    8. Marina Riem, 2016. "Does political uncertainty influence firm owners‘ business perceptions?," ifo Working Paper Series 226, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    9. Florian Dorn & Stefanie Gäbler & Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Luisa Lorenz & Niklas Potrafke & Alexander van Roessel & Luisa Dörr, 2017. "Demokratische Vielfalt in Deutschland – unterscheiden sich die Volksparteien noch?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 70(20), pages 28-37, October.
    10. Potrafke, Niklas, 2017. "Partisan politics: The empirical evidence from OECD panel studies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 712-750.
    11. Fuest, Clemens & Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Ruthardt, Fabian, 2024. "Read my lips? Taxes and elections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    12. Markus Reischmann, 2016. "Empirical Studies on Public Debt and Fiscal Transfers," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 63.
    13. Dominik Hecker & Dano Meiske & Niklas Potrafke & Marina Riem & Christoph Schinke, 2016. "Schuldenbremsen in den deutschen Bundesländern: Worte und Taten der Landesregierungen," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 69(02), pages 14-22, January.
    14. Florian Dorn, 2021. "Elections and Government Efficiency," ifo Working Paper Series 363, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    15. Oliver Bachmann & Klaus Gründler & Niklas Potrafke & Ruben Seiberlich, 2021. "Partisan bias in inflation expectations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 513-536, March.
    16. Niklas Potrafke, 2019. "Fiscal Performance of Minority Governments: New Empirical Evidence for OECD Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 7733, CESifo.
    17. Niklas Potrafke, 2018. "Government ideology and economic policy-making in the United States—a survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 145-207, January.
    18. Florian Haelg & Niklas Potrafke & Jan-Egbert Sturm, 2022. "The determinants of social expenditures in OECD countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 233-261, December.
    19. Björn Kauder & Niklas Potrafke, 2013. "Government Ideology and Tuition Fee Policy: Evidence from the German States," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 59(4), pages 628-649, December.
    20. Kauder Björn & Larin Benjamin & Potrafke Niklas, 2014. "Was bringt uns die große Koalition?: Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 88-101, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Real estate transfer tax; partisan politics; reform; government ideology; fiscal federalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ifowps:_302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifooode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.