The Impact of Fiscal Rules on Public Finances: Theory and Empirical Evidence for the Euro Area

This paper presents a review of the most significant fiscal rules policymakers can choose from. The insights from this review are then applied to the current budgetary situation of the European Union. In the European Union, the supranational Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) should provide the necessary guidance in limiting governmental borrowing by member states. In addition to the SGP, European countries are implementing various other fiscal rules that bind central, regional and local governments. We provide empirical estimates of the effect of fiscal rules on fiscal balance, government spending and government revenues, using a Fiscal Rule Index. We find that fiscal rules have some effect on fiscal balances.euro area, fiscal policy, policy rules, fiscal sustainability

Does debt predict growth? An empirical analysis of the relationship between total debt and economic output

Although the recent global financial crisis has stimulated a vast amount of research on the impact of public debt on economic growth and also increasingly on the role of private credit, the total levels of indebtedness of an economy have largely been ignored. This paper studies the impact of the total level of and increases in debt-to-GDP on economic growth for 26 developed countries in the short, medium and longer term. We analyse whether we can predict the future level of growth, simply by looking at the total level of debt, or increases in that debt level. We find that there is a negative correlation between high levels of debt and short term economic growth, but that this effect tapers in the medium and long term. Similarly, we find that rapid debt accumulation is negatively related to economic growth over the short term, the impact is less pronounced over the medium term and is non-existent over the long term

Das deutsche Wissenschaftswunder | Eine ökonomische Analyse des Systems Althoff (1882-1907)

Im Vergleich mit der Wissenschaftsphilosophie und -soziologie ist die ökonomische Analyse der Wissenschaft und der Wissenschaftspolitik eine relativ junge Disziplin. Mit dieser Studie liefert der Autor einen grundlegenden theoretischen und empirischen Beitrag zur wirtschaftlichen Wissenschaftsforschung.Lode Vereeck versucht das "deutsche Wissenschaftswunder", d. h. die außerordentlich hohe wissenschaftliche Produktivität des deutschen akademischen Systems vor dem ersten Weltkrieg, zu erklären und die wesentlichen Determinanten dieses Erfolges herauszuarbeiten. Da der Wert akademischer Produkte oft nur Jahrzehnte nach der Entdeckung oder Erscheinung völlig verstanden wird, braucht die Wissenschaftsökonomie eine solche historische Perspektive. Die historisch abgeschlossene Periode von 1882 bis 1907 ist gekennzeichnet durch die Wissenschaftspolitik des hohen Berliner Beamten Friedrich Althoff, weshalb sie oft als "System Althoff" bezeichnet wird.Mit Hilfe einer neo-institutionellen mikroökonomischen Theorie, die das Verhalten der Wissenschaftler und die Rolle der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft modelliert, werden die wesentlichen Kennzeichen und Funktionsweisen des "Systems Althoff" und die institutionellen Determinanten produktiven akademischen Arbeitens herausgearbeitet. Aus dieser Fallstudie lassen sich auch Grundsätze für eine aktive und erfolgreiche moderne Wissenschaftspolitik ableiten

Althoff's Administration of the Academic System: An Economic Approach

Argues that the autonomy of the Althoff administration was based on the “personal regime” of Friedrich Althoff. The public choice approach of bureaucratic behaviour reveals the basis for this autonomy: professionalism and continuity. Manageable span of control and entrepreneurship safeguarded the internal efficiency of Althoff's agency. The information network of Althoff allowed the German scientific community to play its role as defined by the economics of inquiry. The auditing procedures of the community, that allow for technical and allocative efficiency, exert such pressure on its members that it works both as a voluntary monitoring device and as an incentive structure. In order to reduce the huge monitoring costs of scientific production, adopting a bureaucratic structure for the large academic organization of the Althoff system is consistent with the arguments that transaction cost analysis provides. The principal-agent problem that arises from the attenuation of control, characteristic of bureaucracy, was solved by the comparative information advantage and the autonomy of the Althoff administration. Property-rights theory further suggests that the centralized autocratic managing style improved academic productivity. The efficient organization of the Althoff system (both the administration and the academic organization) constituted a major improvement for the development and recognition of German science and scholarship.Bureaucracy, Economic theory, Germany, History, Organizational structure, Universities

Road pricing versus tradable entry rights: a transaction cost approach

This paper describes how, with respect to market-based transportation policies, it is a widely held view of transportation professionals that road pricing entails substantial, though far fewer, transaction costs than tradable transportation permit systems. This conclusion seems to hold only if operational costs are singled out and this paper explores all relevant market, managerial and political transaction costs associated with road pricing and tradable entry rights. The two instruments have the same objective, namely to reduce congestion, and, to a lesser degree, noise, safety and environmental externalities. It is argued that the prevalence of transaction costs is largely dependent on the design of the policy instrument and the technology used. Developments in new technology will ensure that transaction costs associated with implementing a network wide, fleet wide road pricing or tradable entry permit system can remain at a low level. Comparative analysis further shows that a cap-and-trade program of entry permits distributed for free (on a smart card), traded on a brokered market and monitored downstream is not only more effective, but also likely to entail fewer transaction costs than road pricing. Any attempt, in turn, to save the huge information and search costs incurred by road pricing impairs its efficacy by severing the link between the externality and the price paid

Franstaligen vrezen dat taalgrens Vlaamse staatsgrens wordt : LDD-fractieleider Lode Vereeck en professor Bart Maddens ontwarren BHV-kluwen

status: publishe