Delete a holiday – what that brings the economy

Also this year the Danes will have to work again on the “Store Bedigag”. Because the “big day of prayer”, which our neighbors traditionally celebrated on Friday after Easter, has no statutory holiday since 2024. The Danish government has deleted the popular long weekend to its citizens permanently to finance higher arms expenditure. At the time, the government promised 400 million euros.

Whether the invoice will work out is not yet answered. But the Danish path is currently hotly debated in this country. The future federal government plans to massively increase the expenditure on defense and infrastructure and accept billions of debts. Many economic experts also welcome this. However, they also demand that the belt strap more closely elsewhere and to make more efforts to get the economy briskly again.

The deletion of a holiday based on the model of Denmark is “as a symbol just right”, the chairwoman of the economy, Monika Schnitzer, recently said in the mirror. Other prominent economists are of the same opinion. The President of the Munich IFO Institute, Clemens Fuest, would also sacrifice a holiday to boost the country’s growth. And Guntram Wolff, economic professor at the University of Brussels and until last year head of the German Society for Foreign Policy, had already proposed to the old traffic light government to delete two public holidays in order to advance the economy despite additional expenses for the climate and defense.

The economic idea behind it is quite simple: if the population works more, this ensures more economic growth and consequently also for more tax revenue. But how much does one day more work in the year of the economy really bring? This in turn is not that easy to say.

The employer -related institute of the German Economy (IW) in Cologne presented two invoices for this, which come to different results. On the one hand, different years can be compared in which the number of working days fluctuates due to calendar shifts anyway. From this, an effect of a good five billion euros can be derived more economic output per additional working day, the IW writes.

The other invoice is based on an expert opinion from the Council of Experts on the occasion of the abolition of the fine and bed. From 1995, this had been deleted as a holiday in order to compensate for the additional burdens of employers through the contributions to newly introduced long -term care insurance. If you take the simulation calculation from back then and transfer it to today’s level, according to IW, there is an additional economic output of 8.6 billion euros.

That sounds like a lot of money, but ultimately corresponds to about 0.2 percent of total economic output in Germany. The resulting tax additional income would of course not be enough to repay the higher debts. Above all, it emphasizes the symbolic effect of the measure. “The proposal should create an incentive to talk about longer working hours again than about additional free days.” Because it is clear: a shortage of skilled workers and the aging of society, regardless of security policy threats, also present great economic challenges.

In practice, the deletion could also lead to very different – partly opposite – effects. Because not every industry would benefit more equally from one working day. In the hospitality industry and in the leisure area, there could even be negative effects if people have one day less to go out, says IW economist Schröder. If a popular bridge day is eliminated, the tourism industry should also be very happy. In general, the question of which holiday should be eliminated is of great economic importance. For example, the construction industry could use productively in the summer months, while other companies have a lot to do in the Christmas season.

In the population, the idea of ​​foregoing a lovely holiday such as Easter Monday or Whit Monday is not well received by the population. Around two thirds of the Germans reject the proposal ,. If you only look at the answers of the working population, the rejection is even greater. Only the pensioners can warm up for the abolition of a holiday – but they also talked well.