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...

The current economic crisis has hit all European countries hard, but some are much more severely affected others. The problems manifest in European peripheral countries, especially Ireland, Spain, and Greece, have roots in domestic policy mistakes. However, the European context of these policy...

Scholarship on the relationships between key macroeconomic variables and defense investment is divided on both the appropriate level of aggregation for such analysis, and the direction of causality between macroeconomic variables and defense investment. Both NATO and the EU, through the European...

Current fiscal regulations worsened the economic situation in the euro area during the financial and sovereign debt crisis. Regulations that allow more flexibility during downturns and have a countercyclical effect are needed. Five suggestions for a new fiscal package: new spending rules,...

The article provides direct empirical evidence on fiscal decentralisation and economic development in selected European countries in a period 1995-2012. The research (based on data taken from OECD Fiscal Decentralisation Database and OECD) is performed on a panel, which contains 17 unitary...

In this article, the authors examine residential real estate taxation in some European countries. The authors outline the types of direct and indirect real estate taxes, present statistical data to demonstrate the structure of and tax yield and offer conclusions regarding the impact of tax...

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether expenditure decentralization has contributed to weakening fiscal performance in Europe. Using a panel of EU15 countries for the period 1995-2011, we estimate three econometric models and ask the following questions: (1) does the form of spending...

This paper reviews the evolution of the Economic and Monetary Union from its inception in 1992 with the Treaty of Maastricht to the most recent reforms adopted in 2013 to respond to the eurocrisis. The paper describes the evolution of the four pillar of economic governance: the surveillance and...