ABSTRACT
It has only been in recent years that matters of distribution policy have been given more attention in public discussion in Germany.1 In the discussion regarding the ‘great tax reform of 1990’, such matters were discussed at length.2 With German reunification and issues related to financing it, the argument on distribution policy became more heated. While the most important element was what type of tax and duty collection to use to finance the ‘burden of reunification’,3 with the enormous increase in public deficitsfrom DM 5 billion in 1989 to DM 100 billion in 1993-considerable distribution effects are already involved.
