What role can better quality of public finances play in supporting Europe's long-term economic growth prospects? This question was at the centre of the 2008 European Commission workshop on public finances. It was largely motivated by the pressures put on European economies and their budgets from...

I construct an overlapping generations model in which (the endogenous) longevity is impeded by the stock of pollution and promoted by public health spending. I provide an alternative explanation for the so-called environmental Kuznets curve an explanation which gives an active role to...