Accounting systems play a hidden but fundamental role as mode and instrument of representation, coordination and organisation for the public sector and its specific public action. Therefore, financial and accounting reforms transform, implement and reshape public policies as well as the working...

This article provides a theoretical view on European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS), focusing on overarching accounting principles and models, as well as their consequences on the working and the very existence of public service activity. Our analysis applies to illustrative cases...

In some ways, a 2012 symposium on “Dilemmas of State Debt” may seem a bit behind the news curve. At the end of 2010, municipal bond markets were in a deep funk. Analysts predicted that countless municipalities and perhaps one or more of the United States might default on their debt...

We investigate the political determinants of risk premiums which sub-national governments in Switzerland have to pay for their sovereign bond emissions. For this purpose we make use of financial market data from 288 tradable cantonal bonds in the period from 1981 to 2007. Our main focus is on...

This note looks at US$ and DM/Euro denominated government bond spreads relative to US and German benchmark bonds before and after the start of the current financial crisis. The study finds, first, that bond yield spreads before and during the crisis can largely be explained on the basis of...

Emerging market sovereigns issue bonds in the international capital markets governed by a foreign legal regime such as the law of England or New York State. European sovereigns, however, have been able to issue bonds governed by the issuer's own law. In the event of a future financial crisis,...

This paper examines the intersection between two fundamental attributes of Euro Area sovereign debt. The first is that sovereigns tend to issue bonds governed by their own law, which makes a debt restructuring comparatively easy. The second is the standardized collective action clause (CAC)...

Sound Management of Public Finance at sub-national level is important for efficiency and effectiveness of government intervention programs. The state government presented ‘White Paper on Haryana State Finances' in an attempt to capture the trends of financial instabilities and weakness in...

The present article examines the coverage of the European actors in the Greek national debt crisis in the German daily newspapers “Die Welt”, “Bild”, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Die Tageszeitung”, as well as on the online platform “Spiegel...

The present study examines news reporting during the Greek national debt crisis in the German television news programmes "Tagesschau" and "heute" and in the special broadcasts "Brennpunkt" on ARD and "ZDF spezial" on ZDF. The aim is to capture the extent to which the national German media are...