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The implications of delegating fiscal decision making power to sub-national governments has become an area of significant interest over the past two decades, in the expectation that these reforms will lead to better and more efficient provision of public goods and services. The move towards decentralization has, however, not been homogeneously implemented on the revenue and expenditure side: decentralization has materialized more substantially on the latter than on the former, creating "vertical fiscal imbalances". These imbalances measure the extent to which sub-national governments’ expenditures are financed through their own revenues. This mismatch between own revenues and expenditures may have negative consequences for public finances performance, for example by softening the budget constraint of sub-national governments. Using a large sample of countries covering a long time period from the IMF’s Government Finance Statistics Yearbook, this paper is the first to examine the effects of vertical fiscal imbalances on fiscal performance through the accumulation of government debt. Our findings suggest that vertical fiscal imbalances are indeed relevant in explaining government debt accumulation, and call for a degree of caution when promoting fiscal decentralization.
Reforms or bankruptcy?
(2011)
Almost 20 Greek academic economists from renowned universities in Europe and the US have prepared a one-page statement regarding the Greek crisis. In their statement the economic experts call upon the Greek public to accept the economic program of structural reforms, privatization, efficient tax collection, and shrinking of the public sector proposed and financed by the EU partners and the IMF. Among the signatories are this year's Nobel Prize winner Christopher Pissarides and Michalis Haliassos, Director of the Center for Financial Studies and Professor for Macroeconomics and Finance at the House of Finance.
The treatise "Contra malos divites et usurarios" (Cracovie, 1512) was the first of the renowned Polish anti-usurious texts which was not written by a university professor but by an official of the royal administration. Stanisław Zaborowski focuses, especially, on the problem of land of the royal domain given by kings to great landlords as a pledge, with harm to res publica. He applies the late medieval conciliarist notions to the issue of royal power. Nevertheless, the text diverges from the medieval thought. Zaborowski’ discourse does not focus on demonstrating the rightness of the anti-usurious principles but rather on convincing the readers to follow them in life. The argumentation is ‘addressed’ more to the will than to the reason; it focuses on the vice of avarice, more than on the Seventh Commandment; the author emphasizes the virtue of charity, more than on the virtue of justice. Anti-usurious Zaborowski’s thought made a part of his political vision. His discussed treatise is closely related with his more renowned Tractatus de natura iurium et bonorum regis. In Contra malos divites et usurarios, the problems of public debt and forced loan are of crucial importance. At present Marcin Bukała is preparing the critical edition of the treatise.
This article discusses the recent proposal for debt restructuring in the euro zone by Pierre Paris and Charles Wyplosz. It argues that the plan cannot realize the promised debt relief without producing moral hazard. Ester Faia revisits the Redemption Fund proposed in November 2011 by the German Council of Economic Experts and argues that this plan, up to date, still remains the most promising path towards succesful debt restructuring in Europe.
This European Policy Analysis discusses the need to strengthen the institutions underpinning the euro and makes several policy recommendations. The Stability and Growth Pact must be reinforced, have greater automaticity and entail graduated sanctions. Fiscal surveillance must be improved through the establishment of a European Fiscal Stability Agency. Finally, the European Financial Stability Facility must be made permanent.
Schon im ersten Weltkrieg, besonders aber seit dem Ausbruch der Weltwirtschaftskrise und erst recht im zweiten Weltkrieg hat der öffentliche Kredit in finanz- und wirtschaftspolitischer Hinsicht eine Bedeutung erlangt, wie nie zuvor. Er, der ehedem fast nur ein außerordentliches Mittel zur Überwindung vorübergehender finanzieller Schwierigkeiten des Staates gewesen war, entwickelte sich in dieser Zeit zu einem wirtschaftspolitischen Faktor ersten Ranges, ohne dessen Mitwirkung eine erfolgreiche Finanz- und Wirtschaftspolitik heute kaum denkbar ist. Besonders die durch den zweiten Weltkrieg geschaffene Zwangslage nötigte die einzelnen Volkswirtschaften, die durch ihn gebotenen finanz- und wirtschaftspolitischen Möglichkeiten in jeder Weise bis zur Grenze des absolut Möglichen auszuprobieren. Die konjunkturaktive öffentliche Kreditpolitik jener Zeit war von Anfang an kein einheitliches Ganzes, sondern entwickelte sich zu einem geschlossenen wirtschafts- und finanzpolitischen System erst allmählich aus verschiedenen wirtschafts- und finanzpolitischen Einzelmaßnahmen. Sinn und Zweck dieser Arbeit ist es nun, rückschauend auf diese Entwicklung das Grundsätzliche dieser Politik herauszuarbeiten. Ihr besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der Beantwortung der Fragen, inwieweit eine staatliche konjunkturaktive Kreditpolitik ein Heilmittel ist, um einen wirtschaftlichen Schrumpfungsprozess zum Stillstand zu bringen, inwieweit ein Reizmittel, um die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung voranzutreiben und inwieweit ein Gift, das schließlich den Ruin von Marktwirtschaft und Finanzwirtschaft herbeiführt.
This study looks at the interrelationship between fiscal policy and safe assets as there is surprisingly little analysis about this beyond fleeting references. The study argues that from a certain point more public debt will not “buy” more safety: countries face a kind of “safe-assets Laffer curve” with a maximum amount of safe assets at some level of indebtedness. The position and “stability” of this curve depend on a number of national and international factors, including the international risk appetite and, as a more recent factor, QE policies by central banks. The study also finds evidence of declining safe assets as reflected in government debt ratings.