Economic Development and Growth

Economic Development & Growth

What makes countries’ economies grow towards a developed status is a subject of much debate, with competing approaches vying to assert their superiority. Free markets or state-led? National champions or free enterprise? Diversification or competitive advantage? This EconPol topic area cuts through dogmas and philosophies to find which factors actually drive economic growth, under what circumstances, and which ones make it sustainable.  It looks at strategies, policies, and initiatives aimed at enhancing productivity, promoting innovation, and creating favorable conditions for economic progress, and examines the role of various drivers of economic development, such as investment, entrepreneurship, technological advances, human capital development, and institutional frameworks. It also explores the challenges and opportunities associated with economic growth, including income inequality, environmental sustainability, and the distribution of resources.

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Forum Icon INSTITUTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD

Discrimination of Sexual Minorities in Emerging Markets: Can the Needle Be Moved?

INSTITUTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD

Cevat Giray Aksoy, Christopher S. Carpenter, Ralph De Haas, Mathias Dolls, Lisa Windsteiger

Recent advances in rights for lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals (LGB) have varied substantially across the world. This article provides new evidence on the determinants of support for sexual minorities in Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine – three emerging markets with some of the lowest rates of social acceptance of sexual minorities in Europe.

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Forum Icon ECONOMIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT

Who Should Bear the Burden of Increasing Fiscal Pressure? An Optimal Income Taxation Perspective

ECONOMIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT

Mehmet Ayaz, Lea Fricke, Clemens Fuest, Dominik Sachs

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the global economy, leaving us with a significant stock of additional debt. A widespread view is that the burden of servicing this debt should be distributed fairly, suggesting that tax systems should become more progressive. How should the optimal degree of income tax progression change if governments need to raise more revenues? In this article, the authors use the workhorse model of optimal income taxation to analyze the change in the degree of tax progressivity in response to the fiscal pressure caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Cover of EconPol Policy Brief 51

The Effect of Subject-Specific Teacher Qualifications on Student Science Achievement

Vera Freundl, Pietro Sancassani

What makes a good teacher? This is one of the central questions in the economics of education. General teacher qualifications, such as education level or advanced degrees, tend to be poor predictors of teacher quality. Instead, some studies have shown that subject-specific qualifications predict teacher quality better. However, the vast majority of such studies are based on data from the United States. It is therefore unclear to what extent the findings can be generalized to other nations, as teacher education programs vary widely across countries. The lack of international evidence is particularly problematic for developing economies, which would arguably benefit most from improving student achievement.

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German Economic Model

The German Economic Model – Decline or Second Economic Miracle?

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Expert Opinion
What is the future of Germany’s economic model? The Russian attack on Ukraine has triggered a debate about the further development of prosperity in Germany. There are growing concerns about economic decline. Rising energy prices, the high costs of climate protection, an increase in geopolitical conflicts, and a shrinking workforce could put an end to the successes of the German economic model. Current decisions by energy-intensive companies to relocate investments to the United States and China seem to confirm this. Optimists counter that the growing global interest in clean technologies ought to benefit the capabilities of German companies. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz even talks about Germany facing a period of high growth rates, similar to the years of the German economic miracle in the 1950s, because of investments in decarbonization.
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Cover of EconPol Policy Report 40

Minimum Income Support Systems as Elements of Crisis Resilience in Europe

Werner Eichhorst, Holger Bonin, Annabelle Krause-Pilatus, Paul Marx, Mathias Dolls, Max Lay

The new Policy Report analyses the role of social policies in different European welfare states regarding minimum income protection and active inclusion. It finds consistent differences in terms of crisis resilience across countries and welfare state types. In general, Nordic and Continental European welfare states with strong upstream systems and minimum income support (MIS) show better outcomes in core socio-economic outcomes such as poverty and exclusion risks. However, labour market integration shows some dualisms in Continental Europe. The study shows that MIS holds particular importance if there are gaps in upstream systems or cases of severe and lasting crises.

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