‘State Finance Beyond the Core Budget. Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies in Germany’s Fiscal Ecosystem’ (with Gregor Laudage, Armin Haas, and Andrei Guter-Sandu)
The state as a financial actor is commonly imagined to be a unitary entity that interacts with the wider financial system via its core budget operated by the treasury that generates inflows via taxes and […]
‘Locked Into Complexity. Path Dependency and German Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies’ (with Monica DiLeo, Andrei Guter-Sandu, and Armin Haas)
The political science literature has long turned its attention to fiscal governance as a core site of political contestation. Typically conceived of as legislative bodies battling it out over the level and distribution of spending […]
‘The Transformation of South Africa’s Monetary Architecture, 1983–2024. A Report for South Africa’s National Planning Commission’ (with Mark Swilling)
This report studies the transformation of South Africa’s monetary architecture—understood as a complex web of balance sheets that interlock via different credit instruments—from 1983 to 2024. The purpose of this investigation is to provide a […]
‘All Quiet on the Fiscal Front? Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies in the German War Economy, 1914–1918’ (with Armin Haas, Andrei Guter-Sandu, and Olan McEvoy)
It is an established narrative in the literature that the German Empire financed World War I through an extensive issuance of sovereign debt with support of the central bank, the Reichsbank. Indeed, the sovereign debt […]
‘Après le Déluge. Managing Balance Sheet Contraction after the First World War’ (with Armin Haas, Verena Gradinger, and Andrei Guter-Sandu)
The financing of the World War I created an unprecedented volume of indebtedness within and between the belligerent states. After this déluge, states were confronted with the colossal challenge of reducing the debt overhang. The […]
‘The Mefo Operation. A Macro-Financial Analysis of Hjalmar Schacht’s Shadow Money Scheme’ (with Armin Haas, Friederike Reimer, and Andrei Guter-Sandu)
In the summer of 1931, Germany faced the nadir of the Great Depression. After the Machtergreifung of the Nazis in 1933, Hjalmar Schacht was appointed president of the Reichsbank and invented the “Mefo operation” to […]
‘From Stabilisation to Strategic Mobilisation. The Exchange Equalisation Account as a Wartime Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agency, 1932-1945’ (with Andrei Guter-Sandu, Verena Gradinger, and Olan McEvoy)
This paper examines how the British state mobilises off-balance-sheet fiscal agencies to address extreme financial pressures inflicted by systemic shocks. It looks at the case of the UK’s Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA), a World War […]
‘Mind the MacMillan Gap. Off-Balance-Sheet Fiscal Agencies in Britain’s Post-War Industrial Financing, 1945-1973’ (with Olan McEvoy, Moritz Kapff, and Andrei Guter-Sandu)
Following World War II, Britain faced mounting industrial financing challenges amid economic decline, structural weaknesses, and a finance sector ill-equipped to support SME growth and industrial modernisation. While research has extensively analysed Britain’s post-war reconstruction […]
2024 | ‘Green Macro-Financial Governance in the European Monetary Architecture. Assessing the Capacity to Finance the Net-Zero Transition’ (with Andrei Guter-Sandu and Armin Haas), Competition & Change
The Green Transition to net-zero carbon emissions in Europe requires massive financing efforts, with estimates of 620 billion EUR annually, but the headwinds are substantive. Central banks seem overstretched and busy tightening to combat inflation; treasuries are […]
2024 | ‘Towards a Public Sustainable Finance Paradigm for the Green Transition’ (with Philipp Golka and Jan-Erik Thie), Finance & Society
Sustainable finance is often discussed as a solution to the climate crisis, but its impacts are limited. We introduce the concept of “public sustainable finance,” in which the state has a central role to play […]
2023 | ‘Monetary Architecture and the Green Transition’ (with Andrei Guter-Sandu and Armin Haas), Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
How to finance the Green Transition towards net-zero carbon emissions remains an open question. The literature either operates within a market-failure paradigm that calls for a Pigou tax to help markets correct themselves, or via […]
2023 | ‘Sovereign Debt Issuance and the Transformation of the Monetary Architecture in Prussia and the German Empire, 1740–1914’, Background Paper Dezernat Zukunft
This paper traces the transformation of the monetary architecture and concomitant sovereign debt issuance practices in Prussia and the German Empire from 1740 to 1914 in order to reflect on contemporary ideas regarding the appropriate […]
2023 | ‘Public Sustainable Finance. Von nachhaltigen Finanzmärkten zur sozialökologischen Transformation’ (with Philipp Golka and Jan-Erik Thie), Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung
In diesem Artikel plädieren wir für „Public Sustainable Finance“, bei welchem dem Staat für eine maximale Transformationswirkung eine zentrale Rolle zukommt. Bisheriges Sustainable Finance konzentriert sich auf ESG-Kriterien, Divestment, Voting, Engagement und Impact Investing. Ziel […]
2022 | ‘Special Funds and Security Policy. Endowing the German Energy and Climate Fund with Autonomous Borrowing Powers’ (with Jan-Erik Thie), IIPP Policy Brief
With the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, energy security and independence have become thenew imperative for German policymakers. Under these circumstances, an accelerated transformation towards climate neutrality serves both ecological as well as security […]
2022 | ‘Für eine Ausstattung des Energie- und Klimafonds mit Kreditermächtigungen’ (with Jan-Erik Thie), Wirtschaftsdienst
Energiesicherheit und -unabhängigkeit sind der neue Imperativ nach dem von Wladimir Putin befohlenen Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine. Eine beschleunigte Transformation hin zur Klimaneutralität dient damit gleichzeitig ökologischen und sicherheitspolitischen Zielen. Sie erfordert massive öffentliche Investitionen […]