In this paper, we discuss the balance sheet mechanics of the Swedish government. We examine spending, government bond purchases, and tax payments. As long as the Swedish central bank, which is created through Swedish laws, supports the Swedish central government, it cannot run out of money. The...

We use novel German survey data to investigate how perceptions and information about public finances influence attitudes towards public debt and fiscal rules. On average, people strongly underestimate the debt-to-GDP ratio, overestimate the interest-to-tax-revenue ratio and favor a tighter...

Fiscal crises are a central theme in the recent history of many emerging economies, as they are more vulnerable to budget distress than developed countries. From 1970 to 2015, emerging markets experienced more than twice as many fiscal crises as their wealthier counterparts (Gerling et al. 2017,...

Deutschland benötigt bis 2030 zusätzliche öffentliche Ausgaben in Höhe von 782 Mrd. Euro für die Modernisierung. Bislang fehlt der deutschen Politik dafür ein verlässlicher Finanzierungsrahmen; diskutiert werden stets eine grundlegende Reform der Schuldenbremse oder Einsparungen. Beide...

Incentivizing innovation through buyouts may alleviate the social costs associated with patent power, but the political economy and feasibility of this potentially important financing mechanism have been understudied. We study an international setting of countries with different innovation and...

The current generation of pensioners has, in general, been better served by the UK's mix of state and private pension provision than earlier generations were. Pensioners today have disposable incomes - once you take account of housing costs and children - that on average are similar to those...