This paper is based on the conjecture that institutional details matter and that attempts to estimate the economic effects of federalism by drawing on a simple dummy variable neglect potentially important institutional details. Based on a principal component analysis, seven aspects of both...

Persson and Tabellini (2003) show that presidential regimes and majoritarian election systems have important effects on fiscal policy, government effectiveness and productivity. Here, their dataset is extended in a number of ways: the number of countries included is increased from 85 to up to...

This paper explores the idea that institutional details matter and that attempts to estimate the economic effects of federalism by employing a simple dummy variable neglect potentially important institutional details. Based on a principal component analysis, seven aspects of both federalism and...

Persson and Tabellini (2003) show that presidential regimes and majoritarian election systems have important effects on fiscal policy, government effectiveness and productivity. Here, their dataset is extended in a number of ways: the number of countries included is increased from 85 to up to...

Die jüngst von Bayern und Hessen eingereichte Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen den bundesstaatlichen Finanzausgleich zielt im Kern auf die ungleiche Verteilung der Finanzierungslasten zwischen den Ländern im Rahmen des bestehenden Ausgleichssystems. Sollen die Finanzausgleichslasten umfassend...

In Germany there is a political consensus that the economic and fiscal burden of the German reunification should be shared by all three jurisdictional levels of the federal system. According to existing law, the burden-sharing between the state and local authorities has to be confined to the...