Public Debt Management & Fiscal Sustainability in Italy

This paper examines the government finances for Italy to determine if they satisfy the Inter-temporal Budget Constraint (IBC) especially since post-Maastricht. Italy met the convergence criteria in order to be accepted as an EMU country. Arghyrou and Luintel (2005) examine the finances of Italy up to the pre-Maastricht convergence period and find that the finances of Italy showed weak form sustainability demonstrating a Maastricht effect. Standard assumptions have been that Italy’s true position of un-sustainability would be inherent post-Maastricht. This paper examines this issue and finds: (i) that the debt to GDP series shows that the finances of Italy are un-sustainable; (ii) however the government revenue and expenditure show weak form sustainability. This paper also finds a downward trend of the government debt to GDP ratio and a convergence of the government revenue and expenditure in recent times. This implies that the finances of Italy satisfy the IBC and indeed continue to maintain the result of weak sustainability even post-Maastricht.

Population ageing and public finance targets

The paper incorporates intergenerational fairness into a framework to analyse long-term sustainability of public finances under population ageing. It establishes a link between ageing-related public expenditure projections and public finance targets, thereby clarifying the connection between pension reforms and general government budget balance and debt targets.population ageing, public finances, sustainability of public finances, budget balance targets, pension reforms, pensions, Oksanen

Social security finances

One of the government’s main functions is to protect the population against a number of social risks. Hence, replacement incomes are provided in the event of unemployment, old age or occupational disability. Income supplements are granted to compensate in part for the financial burden associated with illness or with bringing up children. These social benefits are an important facet of the redistribution of income effected by the government. In Belgium, social protection is provided mainly by the social security sub-sector, which is the largest component of the general government sector. The level of government expenditure on social protection in Belgium is, expressed as a percentage of GDP, above the European Union average. This is due mainly to relatively higher expenditure on pensions and unemployment. The Belgian social security sector expanded strongly in the 1970s. In the ensuing period, total social security receipts and expenditure remained relatively stable on average; expressed as percentages of GDP, they stood in 2000 at roughly the same level as in 1980. During this period, however, there was a “stop and go” policy on expenditure and receipts : expansion periods were followed by periods in which a more restrictive policy was pursued. In recent years, social security has again been expanding, although only to a more limited extent. Over the years, the structure of social security spending has changed significantly : due to the strong rise in health care expenditure, this spending item has now become the most important component, just ahead of pensions. Since receipts and expenditure have hitherto moved very much in parallel, the financial balance of social security has always hovered around equilibrium. At present, the social security sector is not only free of any financial liabilities, it actually has substantial financial assets. Population ageing will clearly exert strong upward pressure on future expenditure on pensions and health care. This increase can be only partly offset by the predicted decline in unemployment expenditure and family allowances. Therefore, social security will have to face a major financial challenge in the (near) future.Belgian public finance, social security, social protection expenditure

Film Finances and the British New Wave

This article explores the role of Film Finances Ltd in supporting the films of the British new wave focusing on six key films: Room at the Top, The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Taste of Honey, A Kind of Loving and Billy Liar. It evaluates what the Film Finances Archive reveals about the production of these films and their budgets and box-office performance. The article demonstrates that Film Finances played a key role in encouraging new directors and artistes during a period of flux and transformation for the British film industry. It also sheds new light on the cultural and political economies of an important movement in British cinema history

ASPECTS REGARDING THE APPLICATION OF DIRECT-COSTING IN TAKING THE MANAGERIAL DECISIONS

Direct-costing represents a method of calculation which, although can not be used in financial reporting, represents a very strong instrument of analysis within reach of enterprise's management. The method direct-costing requires the delimitation between the variable and fixed costs and including in the cost of production of the variable costs, the fixed costs being considered costs of the period. Another important aspect is the difference between the methods of absorbent costs and the method direct costing. The making of rational decisions that can permit the obtaining of optimum results can be made only if it is taken into account the correlation between the fixed costs, the variable costs, the volume of activity and the price of selling of the products, correlation given by the specific indicators of the method direct-costing.Direct-costing, variable cost, fixed cost, cost of sub activity

Georgia's Aging Population: What to Expect and How to Cope

This report analyzes the impacts of Georgia's aging population on state finances. FRC Report 11

Quality of public finances and growth

In this paper we review the linkages between the quality of public finances, that is, the level and composition of public expenditure and its financing via revenue and deficits, and economic growth. We review the various channels through which public finances affect growth and its underlying determinants (institutional framework, employment, savings and investment, innovation). The paper addresses the approaches used to assess the performance and efficiency of public spending, and surveys the empirical findings on the impact of fiscal variables on sustained economic growth. JEL Classification: H50, O40Efficiency, Growth, quality of public finances

A REVIEW OF THE CAPITAL STRUCTURE THEORIES

In this paper the authors survey capital structure theories, from the start-up point, which is considered Modigliani and Miller’s capital structure irrelevance theorem, to recent theories, such as the pecking order and the market timing theory. For each tcapital structure, market timing, trade-off theory, leverage, debt, equity, agency costs

THE ANALYSIS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN THE EVOLUTION OF THE BET INDEX AND THE MAIN MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES IN ROMANIA (1997-2008)

Starting from the conclusions which result from conducting some similar empirical studies on the great stock markets, in this work, we have set as our goal to analyze the return series behaviour of the main index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) - the BET index, during different periods of time, compared to the evolution of some macroeconomic variables, like interbank interest rates, inflation rate or unemployment rate. The results confirm that there is a weak relation between these variables, in what monthly data are concerned.stock market, macroeconomic variables, empirical study

USING CENSUS BUREAU STATISTICS ON GOVERNMENTAL FINANCES

This report (1) briefly describes the way in which Census Bureau statistics on governmental finances are collected, (2) provides some guidelines concerning the use of these statistics, (3) defines some of the terms used in classifying governmental finances, and (4) lists the major publications on state and local governments issued by the Census Bureau.Public Economics,