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AbstractWe show that migrating extremists can shape political equilibria in the long run. Regions in Austria that witnessed an influx of Nazis fleeing the Soviets after WWII still have significantly higher far-right vote shares today. Institutions and family ties perpetuate persistence. Migrated Nazi elites founded and penetrated local party branches that cultivate and preserve far-right ideologies, even when outside conditions temporarily change. Phonebook entries from 1942 allow tracing current far-right party membership back to past migration. Our results suggest that controlling migrating extremists is crucial to contain the spread of radical movements.

We study whether long-gone but activated history can shape social attitudes and behavior even after centuries. We exploit the case of the sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683, when Turkish troops pillaged individual municipalities across East Austria. In 2005, Austrian right-wing populists started to campaign against Turks and Muslims and explicitly referred to the Turkish sieges. We show that right-wing voting increased in once pillaged municipalities compared to non-pillaged municipalities after the campaigns were launched, but not before. The effects are substantial: Around one out of ten votes for the far-right in a once pillaged municipality is caused by salient history. We conclude that campaigns can act as tipping points and catalyze history in a nonlinear fashion.

We show that migrating extremists shape political landscapes toward their ideology in the long run. We exploit the unexpected division of the state of Upper Austria into a US and a Soviet occupation zone after WWII. Zoning prompts large-scale Nazi migration to US occupied regions. Regions that witnessed a Nazi influx exhibit significantly higher voting shares for the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) throughout the entire post-WWII period, but not before WWII. We can exclude other channels that may have affected post-war elections, including differences in US and Soviet denazification and occupation policies, bomb attacks, Volksdeutsche refugees and suppression by other political parties. We show that extremism is transmitted through family ties and local party branches. We find that the surnames of FPÖ local election candidates in 2015 in the former US zone are more prevalent in 1942 phonebook data (Reichstelefonbuch) of the former Soviet zone compared to other parties.

We show that migrating extremists shape political landscapes toward their ideology in the long run. We exploit the unexpected division of the state of Upper Austria into a US and a Soviet occupation zone after WWII. Zoning prompts large-scale Nazi migration to US occupied regions. Regions that witnessed a Nazi influx exhibit significantly higher voting shares for the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) throughout the entire post-WWII period, but not before WWII. We can exclude other channels that may have affected post-war elections, including differences in US and Soviet denazification and occupation policies, bomb attacks, Volksdeutsche refugees and suppression by other political parties. We show that extremism is transmitted through family ties and local party branches. We find that the surnames of FPÖ local election candidates in 2015 in the former US zone are more prevalent in 1942 phonebook data (Reichstelefonbuch) of the former Soviet zone compared to other parties.

Seit über einem Jahrzehnt wird die Einführung einer steuerlichen Förderung der Forschungs- und Entwicklungsaufwendungen der Privatwirtschaft immer wieder angeregt. Deutschland setzt nach wie vor auf die projektbezogene Förderung der Forschung und Entwicklung. Der Beitrag hinterfragt die aktuelle Förderstrategie und präsentiert die Vorteile eines breit angelegten Förderinstruments, das sich an der steuerlichen Innovationsförderung orientiert. Je nach Ausgestaltungsart würde die neue Förderung im Freistaat Sachsen zu durchschnittlichen Kosten in Höhe von 13 Mill. € pro Jahr bei einer inkrementellen Ausgestaltung und 117 Mill. € pro Jahr bei einer volumenbasierten Ausgestaltung führen.

Abstract
Germany is experiencing a significant decline in potential output. The main reason is demographic aging and, in particular, the retirement of the baby boomers. The available labour volume is also being exacerbated by low employment rates among older workers and a decline in average working hours. In order to overcome weak growth, it is key to strengthen the economy's potential output through technological progress and the efficient allocation of resources. This article analyses the development of potential output growth, quantifies possible contributions to overcoming weak growth and concludes by outlining economic policy options. We discuss two areas that are important for strengthening potential growth: mitigating the consequences of demographic aging and increasing investment and innovation. Mitigating the aging effects requires measures to increase labour market participation and the substitution of labour with capital goods where possible. The latter helps to ensure that more workers become available in areas where substitution through automation is more difficult. Increasing investment and innovation is crucial in order to increase productivity, modernise and expand the capital stock and open up new growth areas.

We conceptualize global liquidity as global monetary policy and credit components by means of a large-scale dynamic factor model. Going beyond previous work, we decompose aggregate credit components into credit supply and demand flows directed at businesses, households and governments. We show that this decomposition enhances the understanding of global liquidity considerably. Whereas global government sector credit supply is best understood as a safe-haven lending factor from an investors perspective, lenders supply the businesses and households with credit to maximize profits along the financial cycle. Moreover, the government sector demands credit in times of bust-episodes, whereas private entities demand credit in times of booms. In particular, we find that our global credit estimates explain substantial variance shares of a large panel of international financial aggregates.