This paper compares four forms of inter-regional financial risk sharing: (i) segmentation, (ii) integration trough the secured interbank market, (iii) integration trough the unsecured interbank market, (iv) integration of retail markets. The secured interbank market is an optimal risk-sharing...

During the next decades the populations of most developed countries will grow older as a result of the low level of birth rates since the 1970s and/or the continuously increasing life expectancy. We show within a Generational Accounting framework how unsustainable the public finances of France,...

This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe's present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings -...

Ein fiskalischer Vergleich entwickelter Staaten geschieht häufig über jährliche Indikatoren wie etwa den Maastricht-Kriterien Defizit-und Schuldenquote. Um jedoch die Tragfähigkeit einer jeweiligen Fiskalpolitik einschätzen zu können, bedarf es der Erweiterung der Perspektive um...