How did modern and centralized fiscal institutions emerge? We develop a model that explains (i) why pre-industrial states relied on private individuals to collect taxes; (ii) why after 1600 both England and France moved from competitive methods for collecting revenues to allocating the right to...

Created by the Hungarian Minister of Instruction and Religion in an attempt to depopulate the Universities of Hungary from the big number of auditors, the Romanian Era of the Law Academy of Oradea began with two academic years , 1919 – 1920 and 1920 – 1921, of transition from the Hungarian...

This paper discusses the development of public expenditure in the Netherlands since 1850. Why did public expenditure increase from 14% GDP in 1850, nearly 20% in 1921, 30% GDP in 1950 and over 60% GDP in 1983? Dutch public expenditure has fallen to less than 50% GDP in 2003. Why did this...

The relationship between public expenditure and aggregate income has long been debated in economic literature. According to Wagner, expenditure is an endogenous factor or an outcome. On the other hand, Keynes considered public expenditure as an exogenous factor to be used as a policy instrument...

Wagner’s Law is the first model of public spending in the history of public finance. The aim of this article is to assess its empirical evidence in Italy for the period 1960-2008 at a disaggregated level, using a time-series approach. After a brief introduction, a survey of the economic...

One of the consequences of major regulatory reform of the telecommunications sector from the end of the 1970s – particularly, privatization, liberalization and deregulation – was the establishment of a new business environment which permitted former national telecommunications monopolies to...

Oradea, an important cultural, economic and administrative town at the Western border of Romania, is known as an academic center since 1780 through its area of operation for over two centuries of the Academy of Law. The Romanian age of higher education institutions has proven to be a step in...

This paper aims at analysing the performances of the EU member states in the Europe 2020 Strategy and understanding the main factors of success. It builds on the Europe 2020 Index developed in Pasimeni (2011) to quantify and measure progress achieved by the 27 countries in pursuing the...

The history of the Netherlands reveals major shifts from centralisation of government tasks towards decentralisation and vice versa. In the seventeenth century, the Republic of United Provinces was the first federal state in modern history. Many transformations later the Kingdom of the...

The paper re-analyses the evidence presented by pro and anti-regulation interests during the debates on factory reform. To do so it considers the interrelationship between fixed costs, the rate of profit and the length of the working day. The interrelationship casts new light on the lobbying...