The fiscal commons problem is one of the most prominent explanations of excessive spending and indebtedness in political economics. The more fragmented a government, the higher its spending, deficits and debt. In this paper we investigate to what extent this problem can be mitigated by different...

This study examines the impact of financial integration on economic growth in the case of 31 European countries over the period from 2000 to 2021 using dynamic panel data models. The estimation results provide evidence of significant positive effects of financial integration on economic growth....

This paper analyses the short- and long-run effects of trade openness on financial development in a panel including data on 35 European countries over the period 2001-2019. For this purpose, it uses the PMG (pooled mean group) estimator for dynamic panels developed by Pesaran et al. (1999). The...

This paper analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on exports and imports in the case of 35 OECD countries during the 2019Q1-2021Q2 period using a dynamic panel approach, specifically the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). In contrast to earlier studies, the empirical specification...

This paper explores the role of political stability on fiscal policy choices in a time-series analysis over 158 years on the Swiss federal level. We argue that the fiscal-commons problem of public finances is affected by the time-horizon of a finance minister. Arguably, the incentives for an...

We study the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth for 23 OECD countries from 1975 to 2001 by using new panel data on sub-federal tax autonomy. While initial estimations suggest that fiscal decentralization causes lower growth rates, we find that this result is not...

It is argued that an independent judiciary is a necessary condition for both individual liberty and economic prosperity. After having surveyed the literature dealing with how to arrange for an independent judiciary, the authors derive some additional policy implications by drawing on two...

The link between federalism and economic performance is still ambiguous. Aiming at clarification, we improve on a widespread shortcoming by measuring federalism not just by one variable but by various institutions that constitute it. To this end, Switzerland provides for a laboratory as its 26...

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between TV news coverage and the GIIPS countries’ bond yield spreads using daily data between January 1, 2007 and December 1, 2016. We employ 1,542,233 human coded news items from evening news shows of leading TV stations in 12 countries...

This paper examines how the Covid-19 pandemic affected European trade patterns. Specifically, dynamic panel data models are estimated to assess the effects on exports and imports of various sectors and products (selected on the basis of their trading volume or strategic importance) of the...