Does redistribution in democracies cater to the will of the majority? We propose a direct empirical strategy based on survey data that needs not assume that voters are guided by pecuniary motives alone. We find that most democracies implement the median voter's preferred amount of redistribution...

We argue that the policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic by all levels of government around the world is not consistent with recommendations from standard welfare economics. Thus, it is important to ask why such policies have been adopted. That opens the door to examining the political economy...

Global energy demand is likely to increase by 45 percent by 2030. Climate change will threaten existing employment and necessitate new green jobs. Funding has gone towards such renewable energy technologies as wind and solar; such fuel economy options as second-generation hybrids, plug-in...

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vise versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water,...

AI is now an important component of sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, public administration and transportation, and is helping to address major challenges such as ageing and climate change. However, there is currently a lack of transparency in algorithmic governance systems, and this is...

A rich literature in public administration has shown that public sector employees have stronger altruistic motivations than private sector employees. Recent economic theories stress the importance of mission preferences, and predict that altruistic people sort into the public sector when they...

This is the first study that assesses the economic effects of direct democratic institutions on a cross country basis. Its results are based on up to six new measures produced to reflect the legislative basis for using direct democratic institutions as well as their factual use. In addition, a...

The paper discusses the impact of high capital mobility for monetary and budget policy as well as for the Provision of public goods, for taxation, for wage policy and trade unions, for distribution policy, and for social security Systems. The mobility of porrfolio capital puts additional...

This paper examines the effect of global transition to simpler, flatter income tax systems on the size of the shadow economy. By offering a new estimation framework, the paper revives the traditional electricity consumption approach to measuring the shadow economy. It overcomes the limitations...

Information and communication technologies are transforming economies and societies around the world. In this respect, E-Commerce has the capability to build a new global economy. That is why government, industries, non-profit-organisations, trade unions and consumers would like to come together...