Deliberative democrats' understanding of democracy includes both participation and discussions before making collective decisions. However, there is a tension between the particular ways they conceptualize participation (as extensive and active) and public discussions (as deliberations under the...

We consider misconceptions about the functioning of the economy as one possible explanation for the emergence of crises in democracies. Furthermore, we study a political process which may lead to successful reform. First of all, we show that voters can make inefficient decisions concerning...

This dissertation contributes to the theoretical understanding of the determinants and consequences of productive government activity for the economic performance of a country’s economy. Chapter 2 gives a comprehensive survey of the recent theoretical literature on the link between productive...

This paper argues that investment in agriculture has a large and continuing developmental importance in terms of both economic growth and poverty reduction. Moreover, targeted public resources have proven to be indispensable in achieving these results. Both arguments are supported with novel...

In this paper, we study the effects of bureaucratic corruption on fiscal policy and the subsequent impact on economic growth. Here corruption takes three forms: (i) it reduces the tax revenue raised from households, (ii) it inflates the volume of government spending, and (iii) it reduces the...

This paper investigates the determinants of fiscal decentralisation, focusing in particular on the impact of the level of income on the level of fiscal decentralisation. Various measures of fiscal decentralisation, several of them novel in this context, are employed in a cross-country...

There is a vast empirical literature investigating the relationship between government size and economic growth. But the empirical evidence of growth effects of public expenditure using cross-country regressions is still inconclusive. According to a number of authors this is not surprising since...

The research paper is a comparative analysis of the budget revenue in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, taking into account the main features in light of the contribution of indirect and direct taxes and social contributions to the achievement of public revenues. Theme...