Dr. Max Franks

I am currently a Postdoc in the Future Lab "Public Economics and Climate Finance" and I also work as a Postdoc at the Berlin Institute of Technology / Fak. VI / Economics of Climate Change. Prior to my PhD at PIK and TU Berlin, I graduated from HU Berlin with a German Diploma in Mathematics.

The focus of my research lies on the possibilities for unilateral climate policy and the interface between public economics and the economics of climate change. In particular this includes the areas of sustainable development, tax competition, the supply side dynamics of fossil resource extraction, inequality and the intra- and intergenerational distribution of wealth.

Currently, I am working on

• Optimal Carbon Prices for Carbon Dioxide Removal (with Matthias Kalkuhl and Kai Lessmann)
  
• Optimal Environmental Taxation and Horizontal Equity (with Martin Hänsel, Matthias Kalkuhl and Ottmar Edenhofer)
• The Social Cost of Carbon in the Presence of Clean and Dirty Capital Stocks (with Samuel Okullo and Simon Feindt)
• Tax Competition with Asymmetric Endowments in Fossil Resources (with Kai Lessmann)
• Optimal Redistributive Wealth Taxation when Wealth is More Than Just Capital (with Ottmar Edenhofer)

On carbon pricing and sustainable development, see this press release: https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/flipping-the-switch-making-use-of-carbon-price-dollars-for-health-and-education

On inequality and policy options to redistribute wealth, see this press release: https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/wealth-inequality-closing-the-gap-by-taxing-land-and-bequests

Peer reviewed articles

Ottmar Edenhofer, Max Franks and Matthias Kalkuhl (2021). "Pigou in the 21st Century. A tribute on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Economics of Welfare." International Tax and Public Finance. DOI: 10.1007/s10797-020-09653-y.

Max Franks, Kai Lessmann, Michael Jakob, Jan Steckel, and Ottmar Edenhofer (2018). "Mobilizing Domestic Resources for the Agenda 2030 via Carbon Pricing" Nature Sustainability 1, p 350-357. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0083-3.

Max Franks, David Klenert, Anselm Schultes, Kai Lessmann, and Ottmar Edenhofer (2018). "Is Capital Back? The Role of Land Ownership and Savings Behavior." International Tax and Public Finance 25(5), p 1252-1276. DOI: 10.1007/s10797-018-9486-3. Download accepted manuscript here.

Siegmeier, Jan, Linus Mattauch, Max Franks, David Klenert, Anselm Schultes, and Ottmar Edenhofer (2018). "The fiscal benefits of stringent climate change mitigation: an overview." Climate Policy 18(3), p 352-367. DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2017.1400943. Download accepted manuscript here.

Gregor Schwerhoff, Max Franks (2018). "Optimal Environmental Taxation with Capital Mobility." Fiscal Studies 39(1), p. 39-63. DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12144. Download accepted manuscript here.

Max Franks, Ottmar Edenhofer, and Kai Lessmann (2017): "Why Finance Ministers Favor Carbon Taxes, Even if They Do Not Take Climate Change into Account." Environmental and Resource Economics 68(3), p 445-472. DOI: 10.1007/s10640-015-9982-1. Download accepted manuscript here.

Other publications

Martin Hänsel, Max Franks, Matthias Kalkuhl and Ottmar Edenhofer (2021). Optimal carbon taxation and horizontal equity: A welfare-theoretic approach with application to German household data. CEPA Discussion Papers 28. Center for Economics Policy Analysis. https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-49812

Max Franks and Ottmar Edenhofer (2020). Optimal Redistributive Wealth Taxation When Wealth Is More Than Just Capital. CESifo working paper No. 8093. https://www.cesifo.org/node/52780

Max Franks and Kai Lessmann (2019). Tax competition with asymmetric endowments in fossil resources. Available at SSRN 3593219. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3593219

Linus Mattauch, Felix Creutzig, Nils aus dem Moore, Max Franks, Franziska Funke, Michael Jakob, Lutz Sager, Moritz Schwarz, Achim Voß, Marie-Luise Beck, Claus-Heinrich Daub, Moritz Drupp, Felix Ekardt, Gregor Hagedorn, Mathias Kirchner, Tobias Kruse, Thomas Loew, Karsten Neuhoff, Isabella Neuweg, Sonja Peterson, Matthias Roesti, Gerhard Schneider, Robert Schmidt, Reimund Schwarze, Jan Siegmeier, Philippe Thalmann, Johannes Wallacher (2019). Antworten auf zentrale Fragen zur Einführung von CO2-Preisen. Gestaltungsoptionen und ihre Auswirkungen für den schnellen Übergang in die klimafreundliche Gesellschaft. Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future 2, 2019,  http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3371150

Ottmar Edenhofer and Max Franks (2017). Kann ein CO2-Preis nachhaltige Entwicklung finanzieren?, In: Ischinger, W., Messner, D. (eds.): Deutschlands Neue Verantwortung - Die Zukunft der deutschen und europäischen Außen-, Entwicklungs- und Sicherheitspolitik, Econ Verlag, 170-177, http://www.deutschlands-verantwortung.de/beitraege/kann-ein-co2-preis-nachhaltige-entwicklung-finanzieren

Max Franks (2016). "Rents, Taxes, and Distribution: Towards a New Public Economics of Climate Change." PhD thesis, TU Berlin, http://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-5585.

Supervision of master's theses:

Courses taught:

2017 Invitation to the 6th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on Economic Sciences

2016 Potsdam Young Scientist Award for an outstanding PhD thesis

2015 Best Overall Paper of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform's 3rd annual conference