Demographic change is affecting the (welfare) state. The first symptoms can be seen on the labor markets. Not only are there a shortage of skilled workers, there is a shortage of workers. More symptoms will appear. The boomers are retiring. Fiscal imbalances arise in social security systems. A sustainability gap is opening up. The promised benefits can only be covered with higher taxes and contributions. Or the benefits have to be reduced. The hope that immigration could restore the ailing state coffers is still rampant in politics. But it’s not that simple. Closing the demographic gap numerically through immigration is one thing. This is neither possible nor desirable. Reducing the fiscal sustainability gap is something different. This is not just because the wrong people can immigrate if migration is uncontrolled. It also has to do with the fact that the German social system is not fiscally sustainable.
Prof. Dr. Norbert Berthold (JMU) in conversation with Prof. Dr. Bernd Raffelhüschen (ALU)
The participants:
Prof. Dr. Bernd Raffelhüschen is Professor of Finance and Director of the Intergenerational Contracts Research Center at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and was a professor at the University of Bergen, Norway (1994-2019). Numerous stays abroad took him to the USA and also to the Scandinavian countries. In addition to his involvement in international research projects, he is involved in questions of practical social policy – for example as a member of the Rürup Commission, the Tax Code Commission or as a board member of the Market Economy Foundation.
Prof. Dr. Norbert Berthold is Professor (emeritus) of economics, particularly economic order and social policy, at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg. He worked at the universities of Freiburg, Basel, Münster, Hamburg, Konstanz, Düsseldorf and Würzburg. Norbert Berthold is the initiator and operator of the economist blog “Economic Freedom” and therefore also the namesake and initiator of this podcast.
The regulatory policy journal