The paper provides an overview of the role of the fiscal imbalances and the ensuing public debt in explaining major episodes in Israel’s recent economic developments. The main conclusions from the Israeli budgetary developments may have more general validity: (a) deficits lead to inflation and...

Migrants, being relatively low earners, are net beneficiaries of the welfare state. However, this paper uses a dynamic model to show that because of migrants’ positive influence on the pension system, which is an important pillar of any welfare state, migration could be beneficial to all...

This paper distinguishes between debt and equity flows in the presence of information asymmetry between the firm’s “insiders” and “outsiders” in a small open economy. It shows the inadequacy of capital investment because its scope is too narrow and the investment each firm makes is too...

Data for the United States and countries in Western Europe indicate a negative correlation between the dependency ratio and both labor tax rates and the generosity of social transfers, after controlling for other factors that influence the size of the welfare state. This is despite the increased...

Even though financial markets today show a high degree of integration, the world capital market is still far from the textbook story of high capital mobility. The purpose of this paper is to highlight key sources of market failure in the context of international capital flows and to provide...

We develop a simple information-based model of FDI flows. On the one hand, the abundance of "intangible" capital in specialized industries in the source countries, which presumably generates expertise in screening investment projects in the host countries, enhances FDI flows. On the other hand,...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS -- III. BUILD-OPERATE -- IV. IDENTIFICATION OF THE ENDOGENOUS AND EXOGENOUS RISKS -- V. "WHITE ELEPHANTS" -- VI. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS: PRICES AND DISCOUNT RATES -- VII. THE ALLOCATION OF RISK BETWEEN THE PUBLIC...

A tax on gross assets has been introduced in some developing countries where several factors (most notably, high inflation) enabled apparently viable enterprises to report losses for income tax purposes. The idea of a tax on the value of assets, rather than on the income that the assets...

The implication of increasing dependency ratios for pay-as-you-go, defined-benefit pension programs are examined. Modifications aimed at smoothing contributions while maintaining benefits intact are analyzed for both open and closed economies.