News
23.04.2024 - The KDZ Centre for Public Administration Research has appointed Michael Thöne to its Advisory Board. The KDZ in Vienna is an institute that is as rich in tradition as it is forward-thinking, bringing together research and practice for excellent scientific policy advice. "I am very much looking forward to the deepened exchange with the KDZ and the other trustees from Austria, Switzerland, Germany and South Tyrol," says the FiFo Director, expressing his gratitude for the honour.
22.04.2024 - The survey "NRW.BANK.Fokus Kommunen" enters its second year. In addition to investments and climate change, this edition focuses on the retention of skilled labor. We warmly invite all financial decision-makers of the municipalities to contribute their perspectives through the survey. The results will be published in August 2024 in an anonymized research report.
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20.03.2024 - In spite of its strong starting position, the sustainability of public finances in an ageing Germany is at risk. FiFo Policy Fellow and one of the "Five Sages" Martin Werding, with Benjamin Läpple and Sebastian Schirner, conducted the calculations for the Federal MoF's 6th Sustainability Report. If policies remain unchanged, German public debt will more than double to 140% of GDP by 2070 in the best-case scenario and rise to a dizzying 345% in the worst-case scenario. FiFo Report 33 provides the calculations and possible solutions in the full version.
07.03.2024 - The people in small towns identify strongly with "their" companies, the firms with "their" municipalities. Both often face the same challenges: Skilled labour, housing, local transport. Nevertheless, there is less co-operation than is possible and helpful. In an interview with LandInForm 1/24, FiFo project manager Eva Gerhards and GGR partner Martin Albrecht explain how this potential can be mobilised with "KOWIS - Cooperative urban development with a focus on business in small towns", a strategic concept developed as part of a BBSR project.
01.03.2024 - Modernisation of the government is as unpopular as it is unavoidable in the German public sector. However, in view of upcoming staff shortages, innovation and red tape reduction can become an opportunity for bureaucracy instead of a threat. In the interwoven multi-level state, modernisation is likely to encounter even more obstacles, as Michael Thöne explains in his presentation at the renowned Loccum Finance Days. But federalism, he points out, also offers more opportunities and fields of experimentation for innovative modernisation.