This study empirically investigates the impact of the federal budget deficit on the nominal interest rate yield on high grade long term tax free municipal bonds. Within a system that includes income tax rates, international capital flows, and the primary budget deficit, which excludes net...

The paper measures the gender wage differentials among members of the Icelandic public sector union federation Association of Academics (BHM). The collective bargaining agremeents of the member unions have changed dramatically during the last 15 years while the agreements have also been...

This paper analyzes the links between labour market institutions and skill premiums in the UK, controlling for other explanatory variables such as market conditions, international trade and skill-biased technology. We find that the trade union decline in unskilled workers can explain more than...

This study evaluates behavioural differences between union and non-union workers in their preferences regarding reciprocal loyalty in the employment relationship. It uses a vignettes approach to elicit preferences and a novel dataset with unusually rich information on semi-skilled employees from...

The analysis presented in this paper deals with two main issues: the one of debt sustainability, meant in the particular acceptation proposed in this article, and the one of the effects of debt decumulation for the various territorial communities, in particular for the weak areas of Italy...

Cooperative federations are usually characterized by the existence of bailout guarantees and intergovernmental transfer schemes. This paper explores whether such features of cooperative federations lead to subnational soft budget constraints using panel data from the German States covering the...

This article explores the effect of sub-national tax autonomy and sub-national control over shared taxes on primary deficits with panel data for 23 OECD countries over the 1975-2000 period. The results suggest that sub-national tax autonomy has a U-shaped effect on primary deficits. We find that...

This article offers an empirical answer to the question of which institutional arrangements can help to keep the accounts of sub-national governments in balance. I take into consideration the autonomy that these governments have in raising their revenues and fiscal rules as formulated in law or...

The theory of fiscal federalism makes a strong case for decentralizing government functions in order to enhance the efficiency of allocating public goods where preferences differ among regions. Decentralized collective decision making fosters social and political cohesion at the level of the...

The paper discusses moral hazard problems as a potential reason for the observed strong increase of indebtedness of German states (Länder). Indeed, financial markets do not react much to the strong differences in fiscal fundamentals of German Länder. Using a case study, the paper also shows...