Fiscal illusion, fiscal consolidation and government expenditure composition in the OECD: a dynamic panel data approach

Following the present atmosphere of budgetary cuts in the OECD countries we analyze the effects of fiscal consolidation in the composition of government expenditures by functions. We modify a standard median voter demand model to incorporate a form of fiscal illusion based on the idea that voters-taxpayers may not be fully aware of the true composition of government expenditures because all types of expenditures are not equally visible. Then we exploit the panel structure of the dataset - 26 OECD countries over the period 1970-1997- by GMM estimation of a dynamic model taking into account unobserved country effects and possible endogeinity of the explanatory variables. Under the assumption that governments know the relative visibility of each type of expenditure, the pattern of the last three decades indicates that defense and the non-productive economic services are the less visible expenditures. On the other hand, education and housing seem to be the more visible expenditures.

The evolution and convergence of the government expenditure composition in the OECD countries: an analysis of the functional distribution

This paper explores the existence of convergence in the structure of government expenditure by functions in the OECD countries for the period 1970-1998 and the prospects of this process persisting in the future. The results obtained first through the similarity index and afterwards using the usual convergence indicators, adapted to the analysis of the breakdown of public expenditure, point to the existence of a distribution approximation. Nevertheless, we have found that the majority of expenditures were near to the steady-state, which differs across countries. This suggests that there are some individual factors that impede convergence to a single structure in the long run.

Kardar-Parisi-Zhang growth on one-dimensional decreasing substrates

Recent experimental works on one-dimensional (1D) circular Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) systems whose radii decrease in time have reported controversial conclusions about the statistics of their interfaces. Motivated by this, we investigate here several 1D KPZ models on substrates whose size changes in time as $L(t)=L_0 + \omega t$, focusing on the case $\omega<0$. From extensive numerical simulations, we show that for $L_0 \gg 1$ there exists a transient regime in which the statistics is consistent with that of flat KPZ systems (the $\omega=0$ case), for both $\omega0$. Actually, for a given model, $L_0$ and $|\omega|$, we observe that a difference between ingrowing ($\omega0$) systems arises only at long times ($t \gtrsim t_c=L_0/|\omega|$), when the expanding surfaces cross over to the statistics of curved KPZ systems, whereas the shrinking ones become completely correlated. A generalization of the Family-Vicsek scaling for the roughness of ingrowing interfaces is presented. Our results demonstrate that a transient flat statistics is a general feature of systems starting with large initial sizes, regardless their curvature. This is consistent with their recent observation in ingrowing turbulent liquid crystal interfaces, but it is in contrast with the apparent observation of curved statistics in colloidal deposition at the edge of evaporating drops. A possible explanation for this last result, as a consequence of the very small number of monolayers analyzed in this experiment, is given. This is illustrated in a competitive growth model presenting a few-monolayer transient and an asymptotic behavior consistent, respectively, with the curved and flat statistics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The evolution and convergence of the government expenditure composition in the OECD countries: an analysis of the functional distribution

The composition of the public expenditure affects the long-run growth rate (Barro, 1990, Devarajan, Swaroop and Zou, 1996). This paper has explored the existence of convergence in the structure of government expenditure by functions in the OECD countries for the period 1970-1998 and the perspectives of this process to persist in the future. The results obtained first through the similarity index and afterwards using the usual convergence indicators (ƒÒ, ƒã and ƒ×), adapted to the analysis of the breakdown of public expenditure, point out to the existence of a distribution approximation. Nevertheless, we have found that the majority of expenditures were near to the steady-state, which differs across countries. This reveals that there are some individual factors that impede the convergence to a single structure in the long run. This could be one of the explanations of the difference observed among economic growth rates in developed countries.convergence, composition of public expenditures, funtions of the government

An Experiment on the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution. Causes and Impact on Inequality

Testing causal relationships expressed by mathematical models on facts about human behaviour across history is challenging. A prominent example is the Neolithic agricultural revolution [1]. Many theoretical models of the adoption of agriculture has been put forward [2] but none has been tested. The only exception is [3], that uses a computational approach with agent-based simulations of evolutionary games. Here, we propose two games that resemble the conditions of human societies before and after the agricultural revolution. The agricultural revolution is modelled as an exogenous shock in the lab (n=180, 60 independent groups), and the transition from foraging to farming results from an equilibrium selection process decided by experimental subjects. The experimental data replicate the known facts that foragers organized themselves around division of labour [4] and were more egalitarian than farmers [5]. There is also evidence of bi-modal distribution along the foraging-farming axis with many in-between groups [6, 7, 8]. These results provide direct evidence that the modes of production determine the system of values of societies (inequality) and lend support for the idea that human moved in a widespread manner from foraging to farming societies. We also find that cultural and institutional preconditions were crucial for farming [9], as more egalitarian foraging groups adopted earlier agricultural techniques, but inequality raises in farming societies as agriculture settles [10], with the long run success of agriculture being determined by the land-owner’s legitimacy. These results enrich our understanding of the Neolithic agricultural revolution and highlight the relevance of experimental methodology to generate a rich dataset that complements the fragmented evidence from archaeological sites

The bare head of the Northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) fulfills a thermoregulatory function

[Background] Dark pigments provide animals with several adaptive benefits such as protection against ultraviolet (UV) radiation and mechanical abrasion, but may also impose several constraints like a high absorbance of solar radiation. Endotherms, with relatively constant and high body temperatures, may be especially prone to thermoregulatory limitations if dark coloured and inhabiting hot environments. It is therefore expected that adaptations have specifically evolved because of these limitations. Bare, highly vascularised head skin may have evolved in birds with dark plumage from hot geographical regions because of favouring heat dissipation. Using the Northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) as a model species, we measured the surface temperature (Tsurf) of the head, the bill and the black feathered body of 11 birds along ambient temperatures (Ta) ranging from 21 to 42.5 °C employing thermal imaging.[Results] While Tsurf of the bill and the feathered body was only slightly above Ta, head Tsurf was considerably higher, by up to 12 °C. Estimated values of heat loss followed similar variations. We also found that the red colour intensity of the head of ibises increased with head Tsurf, suggesting that birds are capable of controlling blood flow and the thermoregulatory function of the head.[Conclusions] These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that bare skin has evolved in dark pigmented birds inhabiting hot environments because of their ability to dissipate heat.IG was supported by a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC-2012-10237) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO).Peer reviewe

One-point height fluctuations and two-point correlators of (2+1)(2+1) cylindrical KPZ systems

While the 1-point height distributions (HDs) and 2-point covariances of $(2+1)$ KPZ systems have been investigated in several recent works for flat and spherical geometries, for the cylindrical one the HD was analyzed for few models and nothing is known about the spatial and temporal covariances. Here, we report results for these quantities, obtained from extensive numerical simulations of discrete KPZ models, for three different setups yielding cylindrical growth. Beyond demonstrating the universality of the HD and covariances, our results reveal other interesting features of this geometry. For example, the spatial covariances measured along the longitudinal and azimuthal directions are different, with the former being quite similar to the curve for flat $(2+1)$ KPZ systems, while the latter resembles the Airy$_2$ covariance of circular $(1+1)$ KPZ interfaces. We also argue (and present numerical evidence) that, in general, the rescaled temporal covariance $\mathcal{A}(t/t_0)$ decays asymptotically as $\mathcal{A}(x) \sim x^{-\bar{\lambda}}$ with an exponent $\bar{\lambda} = \beta + d^*/z$, where $d^*$ is the number of interface sides kept fixed during the growth (being $d^* = 1$ for the systems analyzed here). Overall, these results complete the picture of the main statistics for the $(2+1)$ KPZ class.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 2 table