Previous empirical studies have found a positive relationship between the size of legislature and the size of government. Those studies, however, do not adequately address the concerns of endogeneity. In contrast, this paper uses variation in legislature size induced by statutory council size...

This paper examines the effects of fiscal policy on private consumption. The paper evaluates the assumption that the effects of fiscal policy are dependent on the public sector's financial situation, which changes the private sector's income expectations. For this purpose regression equations...

This paper deals with the question whether the automatic fiscal stabilisers are strong enough to solve the problem of asymmetric shocks in the Euro area. The question is important for many reasons, for instance in terms of policy coordination and fiscal federalism. The paper reviews the current...

This paper re-examines the relationship between government size and output volatility from two perspectives. First, we use a wider international data set of 91 countries over the period 1980?1999 and thus not only the OECD data that have thus far been utilized. Second, we also allow for time...

This paper examines the possibilities of EU member countries to pursue individual trade policies after implementation of the single market. Having reviewed the relevant changes in the institutional framework formed by GATT and EU legistlation, we examine the car market as a special case. We find...

The Finnish economy has experienced an incredible shock in the first part of the 1990s. The 12 per cent decline in Finland?s GDP between 1991 and 1993 led to a sharp rise in unemployment from 3.5 per cent in 1990 to 18 per cent in 1993. The credibility of the Finnish economic policy has improved...

This paper presents a survey of the studies that have investigated productivity and efficiency in the Finnish public sector. The paper outlines methods that have been used in these studies and presents summaries of main finding. In addition suggestions and reflections on how to take quality into...

This paper reviews the macroeconomic performance of the so called Nordic welfare states, especially in terms of growth and employment. In the post-war years the Nordic economies enjoyed rapid growth and full employment. At the same time, under the rule of Social Democratic governments they also...

Consider a public project which produces a consumption good and which benefits future generations. Let a conventional cost-benefit analysis find that it gives higher benelits than projects it would displace in the private sector. Voters may nevertheless oppose the public project. The cause of...