The eurozone faces a profound sovereign debt crisis threatening the very existence of the euro. As a result, the recovery of the world economy has become more uncertain. Therefore, the study of the foundations of this crisis is of the utmost importance. Three of the countries involved, Portugal,...

Many developing countries are searching positive impacts on the efficiency, equity and quality provision of the public services through increasing competition and active participation of the private sector, considering public-private partnerships (PPPs) as the appropriate instrument to attain...

We evaluate the influence of political and institutional features in public spending and its functional composition, by focussing on political actors’ preferences, both opportunistic and partisan, as well as on institutional arrangements as political fragmentation, the electoral system and the...

The main purposes of this paper are twofold: on the one hand, to determine if there are significant differences of regime on public expenditures, total revenues and tax revenues between the so-called PIGS and the remaining Eurozone member states and, on the other hand, to uncover possible...

The idea that the present euro-zone sovereign debt crisis was caused by structural weaknesses degenerating into fundamental macroeconomic imbalances in the peripheral countries prevails among economists and politicians alike. We use quarterly data from 2000 to 2011 from the 27 European Union...