A controversial investment

The US semiconductor company Intel is planning to build two ultra-modern chip factories near Magdeburg. This project was promised the largest industrial policy subsidy that the German government has ever approved for an individual company: almost 10 billion eu-ros. Is this money well-spent? To answer this question, we developed guidelines for the evaluation of government investments (BESTInvest). This paper sets out these guidelines and applies them to Intel-Magdeburg. Our conclusion is that the subsidy is controversial.

Beyond Maastricht

Strengthening Europe’s sovereignty has become a much-debated policy goal. This paper adds three arguments to ongoing discussions.

Public financing needs for the modernisation of Germany (Summary)

This study maps the additional public financing needed to achieve widely accepted targets in areas that are pivotal to Germany’s stability and future. Overall, we estimate an additional public financing need of 782 billion euros across all levels of government from 2025 to 2030. This would correspond to an average of around 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) per year. Our findings are consistent with and complement other estimates of public needs published this year. The need for significant additional public financing for the future viability and modernization of the country can thus increasingly be seen as a consensus position.