Publications - MPIfG

14
MPIfG Report 1999–2002
Eric Seils, Fritz W. Scharpf,
Steffen Ganghof, Anton
Hemerijck
The Development of the Main Research Areas
Multilevel Problem Solving in European Public Policy
Projects in this cluster, which was
directed by Fritz W. Scharpf, were concerned
with the problem solving capacity
of public policy at national and
European levels in a period of growing
economic and institutional integration.
The first group of four dissertation
projects pursued specific research
questions that had been identified in a
large-scale comparative study, led by
Fritz Scharpf and Vivien Schmidt (Boston
University), of the adjustment of
twelve welfare states to changes in their international economic environment.
Martin Schludi analyzed the politics of pension reform in five countries with earnings-related
and pay-as-you-go public pension systems which, under the double
pressure of demographic changes and international competition, were forced to
contain the rise of expenditures and contributions. Focusing on the exceptional
employment performance of the Netherlands, Eric Seils’ dissertation shifts the
emphasis from the usual “corporatist” explanation to the causal effect of budget
consolidation and shows how this policy was facilitated by specific characteristics
of the Dutch political system and budgetary procedures. Steffen Ganghof’s comparative
analysis of the tax performance of seven countries succeeds in demonstrating
that, contrary to frequent claims in the literature, both party-political
preferences and international tax competition have clearly identifiable effects on
national tax policy. Henrik Enderlein’s dissertation, finally, compares the monetary
and fiscal policies which EMU member states had pursued before joining the
Monetary Union in order to identify the causes of the difficulties they are facing
now and to explore potential solutions to these problems of macro-economic
management. All of these dissertation projects were successfully completed in
2001 and 2002.
The next group of closely coordinated dissertation projects, supervised by Gerda
Falkner, is studying the implementation in all EU member states of seven social
policy directives adopted in the 1990s. In all countries, the focus is, first, on the