This paper explores the factors behind the time path of real spending and revenue in the West German states from 1975 to 2004. The empirical approach stresses robustness and takes into account a large set of economic and political variables. Our results suggest that common economic factors and,...

This paper proposes a dynamic politico-economic theory of debt, government finance and expenditure. Agents have preferences over a private and a government-provided public good, financed through labor taxation. Subsequent generations of voters choose taxation, government expenditure and debt...

Aufgrund der seit langem geführten Debatte um das Für und Wider der Nutzung des Politikinstruments der Staatsverschuldung wissen wir recht viel darüber, was Experten (z. B. Finanzpolitiker/‌-‍wissenschaftler) von Haushaltskonsolidierung, Deficit-Spending oder Verschuldungsgrenzen halten....

In a recent paper, Minea and Villieu (2009) assert that the 'golden rule of public finance' implies a lower growth rate than the balanced-budget rule. Their contribution is misleading because it is not the 'golden rule of public finance' that generates their result but rather the fact that...

This paper employs an endogenous growth model to study the growth and welfare effects of the golden rule of public finance. Two versions are compared, whereby government deficits are restricted for the use of public investments. It is shown that the growth effect of the golden rule depends on...

The effect of public investment on economic growth is a crucial public policy issue. Empirical research into this question was stimulated by Aschauer (1989), who suggested that public capital has a powerful impact on the productivity of private capital.Aschauer's results were controversial and...

In this paper we analyze the influence of several types of fiscal policies on the process of economic growth, namely on the rate of growth of consumption.We formulate and analyze two types of economic growth models. The first refers to the way in which a consumer-producer agent takes decisions...

The paper analyses the way in which monetary and fiscal policy influences the performances of economic growth. The analysis is made on the basis of a dynamic model with discrete variables of the Sidrauski- Brock type, with infinite-lived households and money in the utility function. The model is...

In this paper, we compare growth and welfare effects of various budget rules within an endogenous growth model with productive public capital, utility enhancing public consumption and public debt. We find that a fixed deficit regime does not affect the long run growth rate compared to a balanced...

In this paper we test the impact of elections on fiscal policy in Latin American economies in comparison to OECD countries over the period 1990-2006. We find that in Latin American countries, the average primary balance declines by an amount close to 0.7 per cent of GDP during an election year,...