A number of authors have attemted to test whether the U.S. economy is in a determinate or an indeterminate equilibrium. We argue that to answer this question, one must be impose a priori restrictions on lag length that cannot be tested. We provide examples of two economic models. Model 1...

Overall, household debt levels have risen sharply over the past decades in EU Member States. While certain levels of household debts can be beneficial, they can become problematic especially with a sudden, unexpected decrease of incomes or increase of expenditures. The current financial crisis...

Household over-indebtedness is among the causes of the current financial crisis. In turn, the crisis exacerbated both public and private debt problems. In this paper, household over-indebtedness is broadly defined as the situation where a household cannot comply with payment requirements –...

We analyse the performance of budgetary and growth forecasts of all stability and convergence programmes submitted by EU member states over the last decade. Differences emerge for the bias in budgetary projections across countries. As a second step we explore whether economic, political and...

This study aims at evaluating the achievements of the Commissions administrative reform objectives presented in the 2000 White Paper, concerning the introduction of tools for the definition of priorities, and a better allocation and use of resources (ABM). It addresses the three main following...

This manual provides a detailed insight into the sources and methods used by countries to compile the data on quarterly financial accounts for general government. It presents the information in a structured way so that cross-country comparisons can be made. The manual will be updated in the...

The report concentrates on two major challenges facing municipalities in the central and eastern European countries: how to meet the strict requirements of EU accession, and how to deal with the rising waste burden.The report was prepared within the framework of the European Commission LOGON II...

Within a two-step GARCH framework we explore the linkages between equity returns of ten sectors in the euro area, the United States and Japan, respectively. Our estimation framework allows a distinction to be made between spillover effects originating from one of the three currency areas and...

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, for West Germany, France, Italy and US, we econometrically select within a SVAR model some fiscal policy regimes, i.e. a u0094set of rulesu0094 for the implementation of fiscal policies. Second, we identify the fiscal policy shocks related to different...