How to eliminate subsidies and consolidate public budgets

Politicians and business leaders in Germany all favour a reduction of subsidies - also for the consolidation of public budgets. Under discussion are a broad-based examination of individual cases or a cut of all subsidies and tax deductions by a specified percentage figure. For Prof. Gisela Färber, Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer, reality tells us "that these 'sudden' efforts seldom have much effect, regardless of whether an across-the-board or an individual approach is used for the cuts", so that both methods will fail in her opinion. Prof. Färber proposes seven elements that should be incorporated into a promising subsidy reduction procedure. Also for Prof. Klaus-Dieter Diller, University of Koblenz-Landau, the proposed methods for subsidy reductions have little chance of success.