30 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall wurde keine volle Konvergenz der Wirtschaftsleistung und der Lebensverhältnisse zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland erreicht. Das Papier zeigt die unvollständige Konvergenz bei Produktivität, Einkommen, Steueraufkommen und Vermögen auf. Es diskutiert mögliche...

The Degrowth movement advocates a radical shift from our capitalist economic system to one based on human needs, planetary boundaries, and economic democracy. The literature, however, often neglects detailing the concrete coordination mechanisms of a Degrowth economy. This paper addresses this...

The Covid-19 pandemic had different impacts across the globe, according to both country structure and conjunctural responses from local governments. This article aims to characterize the main traits of capitalism in Brazil, with a focus on its evolution over the last 20 years and the way these...

Sweden has undertaken major national reforms of its school sector which, consequently, has been classified as one of the most decentralized ones in the OECD. This paper investigates whether school resources became more unequally distributed across municipalities in connection with the reforms...

In this paper, we develop an empirical framework for detecting the existence and estimating the magnitude of the softness of a budget constraint. The defining feature of a soft budget constraint is a subordinate organization's expectations of being bailed out by a superior organization in case...

In this paper we investigate the determinants of municipal labour demand in Sweden 1988-1995. Utilising a major grant reform in 1993, through which a switch from mainly targeted to mainly general central government grants occurred, we are able to identify which type of grants that have the...

We use U.S. county-level data to estimate convergence rates for 22 individual states. We find significant heterogeneity. E.g., the California estimate is 19.9 percent and the New York estimate is 3.3 percent. Convergence rates are essentially uncorrelated with income levels.

This paper analyzes the interconnection between elites and its effects on economic growth. For decades, the bureaucratic elite has been joining the business elite after leaving office, and this in growing numbers. This relationship has been termed the revolving door in English, pantouflage in...

We use US county level data (3,058 observations) from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and the extent of government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. We find that increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively...

In their role as agenda setters and implementers of political decisions, bureaucrats potentially have the power to influence decisions in their own favor. It is however difficult to empirically test whether bureaucrats actually are involved in such actions. In this paper we suggest and apply a...