Finance is a vital ingredient for economic growth, but there can also be too much of it. This study investigates what fifty years of data for OECD countries have to say about the role of the financial sector for economic growth and income inequality and draws policy implications. Over the past...

Domestic and international capital markets had been liberalised for decades until the mid-2000s. Then the global financial crisis struck. How has policy responded since the crisis: with re-regulation or continued liberalisation? This paper assembles a new dataset on financial policy from 2006 to...

This paper first gives a brief account of the main changes introduced by OECD governments in their capital income tax rules during the 1980s with respect to both the corporate and personal sectors. It then examines the evolution of effective capital taxation, using a summary measure ("tax...

In Norway house prices have risen to high levels, associated with very strong credit growth, in a context of low interest rates. Such a combination was in many countries a contributory factor to the 2008- 09 crisis. The Norwegian authorities have been well aware of the problem. Below-target...

The Belgian financial landscape has been transformed over the past two decades and now consists of a relatively large, well-functioning and internationally integrated financial sector contributing directly and indirectly, through its intermediary function, to long-term economic growth. One of...