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 […]
‘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)
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 […]
‘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 […]
2024 | ‘Towards a Public Sustainable Finance Paradigm for the Green Transition’ (with Philipp Golka and Jan-Erik Thie), Finance and 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 […]