What are the macroeconomic effects of tax adjustments in response to large public debt shocks in highly integrated economies? The answer from standard closed-economy models is deceptive, because they underestimate the elasticity of capital tax revenues and ignore crosscountry spillovers of tax...

Europe's debt crisis casts doubt on the effectiveness of fiscal austerity in highly-integrated economies. Closed-economy models overestimate its effectiveness, because they underestimate tax-base elasticities and ignore cross-country tax externalities. In contrast, we study tax responses to debt...

Der griechische Staat hat von seinen europäischen Partnern ein drittes Hilfspaket erhalten. Neben der Frage, ob der griechischen Regierung die Umsetzung der dabei vereinbarten Reformen zugetraut werden kann, gilt die weiterhin hohe Staatsverschuldung als größte Hypothek für die ökonomische...

Along time the European Union (EU) has been pointed as the most succeeded example of regional integration. Now, this example has been cruelly shaken by the EZ (Euro Zone) crisis, originating increasing doubts about the integration process. It is evident that the proposed solutions for attacking...

This paper proposes a simple method to assess the sustainability of public finances in Romania, which uses the twin deficits concept. We conclude that the sustainability of the country has been seriously affected by the recent crisis, but to a larger extent by the inappropriate design of...

Public debt is one of the important economic variables that quantitatively describes a nation's economy. Because bankruptcy is a risk faced even by institutions as large as governments (e.g. Iceland), national debt should be strictly controlled with respect to national wealth. Also, the problem...

This Feature considers the debts of quasi-sovereign states in light of proposals to let them file for bankruptcy protection. States that have ceded some but not all sovereign prerogatives to a central government face distinct challenges as debtors. It is unhelpful to analyze these challenges...

We develop a model to study the macroeconomic effects of public investment surges in low-income countries, making explicit: (i) the investment-growth linkages; (ii) public external and domestic debt accumulation; (iii) the fiscal policy reactions necessary to ensure debt-sustainability; and (iv)...

At the level of public discourse the debate surrounding European sovereign debt crises has become polarised between the need for greater levels of public spending cuts and privatisation (‘austerity') and the need to use government investment or reductions in regulatory policies to bring about...

The purpose of this article is to explain changes in sovereign yields using conventional “rating agency style” measures in comparison to contingent claims valuation-based measures. I will show that – in contrast to most conventional sovereign credit quality measures – contingent claims...