This paper analyses whether large governments in Europe reflect efficient responses to a changing social and economic environment (‘welfare economic view’) as opposed to wasteful spending (‘public choice view’). To this end, the effect of government size on subjective well-being is...

In this paper we seek a robust methodology to measure the relative public spending efficiency of 19 OECD countries over the period 1980-2000. Based on the functional classification of government expenditure, we decompose total public spending into its separate accounts and we employ a...

In the case of Romania, a sharp deterioration of the fiscal framework strength has been observed during post-crisis period, the public debt-to-GDP ratio currently reaching around 40%, thus doubling as compared to 2008. The structural analysis of government debt portfolio highlighted the main...

The study of the link between debt and growth has been full of debates, both in theory and empirics. However, there is a growing consensus that the relationship is sensitive to the level of debt. Our paper tries to address the question of non linearity in the long term relationship between...

The paper attempts to empirically explore the transmission mechanism regarding the short-term impact of public debt and growth. We examine and evaluate the direct effect of higher indebtedness on economic growth for countries in the EU which are in the epicentre of the current sovereign debt...

This paper investigates the relationship between public capital expenditure and public debt in the European Union (EU) on a panel of fifteen countries over the sample period 1980-2013. We find robust evidence of a negative cointegrating relation, according to which increases in the capital...

In this paper, first, we will take notice of the development of the stock markets in six euro area countries with highest public debt: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, and Spain. Subsequently, a comparison of returns and volatility will be made with the development of selected...

We analyse the implications of public debt on economic growth and inflation in a group of 52 African economies between 1950 and 2012. The results indicate that the limits of public debt affect economic growth and exhibit negatively, from a given level of debt, an inverted U behaviour regarding...

The rapid increase in the government debt under the circumstances of the global crisis persistence and financial markets volatility raises the need for a new approach of public debt sustainability, including for Romania. Despite more intense contagion effects according to global markets...