Assessing the electronic invoicing potential for private sector firms in Belgium

Governments around the world identify the advancement of electronic invoicing in businesses as crucial for tackling administrative burdens. This paper examines, for the first time, the potential cost savings of e-invoicing in Belgium. Our analysis shows that the total cost of invoicing for Belgian private sector businesses in 2014 amounted to €3.47 billion (0.96% of GDP) and could be reduced to €1.46 billion (0.38% of GDP) if all invoices were sent digitally. Furthermore, an analysis of both barriers and enablers of e-invoicing reveals significant concerns that remain regarding the safety of e-invoicing, although a majority of private sector businesses clearly identifies the potential efficiency gains. From our contingent valuation survey among 683 Belgian businesses, we learn that the average willingness to pay (WTP) for the required investments for implementing digital invoicing amounts to €2,380. However, the potential annual cost savings of digital invoicing for the average small business in our sample is over €7,000. Additionally, our linear regression models indicate that the WTP is positively impacted by the perceived time and reduced risk gains of digital invoicing

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

Does patient behaviour drive physicians to practice defensive medicine? Evidence from a video experiment

Abstract Objective By manipulating patients’ critical attitude in a video experiment, we examined whether physicians are more intended to perform defensive acts because of a higher perceived liability risk in Belgium. Methods We assigned 85 practicing gynaecologists/obstetricians and orthopaedists randomly to four hypothetical video consultations, in which the patients show either a critical attitude (i.e., getting ahead of the facts, showing distrust) or a non-critical attitude (i.e., displaying more neutral questions and expressions). We asked the physicians about the care they would administer in the presented cases and the expected likelihood that the patient would sue the physician in case of a medical incident. Results By manipulating patients’ verbal critical attitude (which indicates patients’ intention to take further steps), while keeping constant physician’s communication, patients’ clinical situation, preferences, and non-verbal behaviour in the videos, we were able to discover differential treatment styles driven by physicians’ perceived liability risk among patients with a different critical attitude. We found that physicians perform 17 percentage points more defensive acts (e.g., surgeries and diagnostic tests that are not medically necessary) when experiencing a high liability risk. Conclusions Our results show that patients’ critical attitude drives physicians’ perceived liability risk and consequent defensive behaviour among obstetricians/gynaecologists and orthopaedists

Additional file 1 of Does patient behaviour drive physicians to practice defensive medicine? Evidence from a video experiment

Additional file 1: Appendix