The debate on the cyclical adjustment procedure of the debt brake has focused on problems with regards to potential output. The second key determinant of the cyclical budget component, however, has been neglected: the semi-elasticity of the budget balance, which measures the response of federal...

This paper discusses how the technical foundations of the EU's fiscal rules constrain the fiscal space in EU countries in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We review the evidence on how estimates of potential output, which are at the heart of essential control indicators in EU fiscal...

Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) relies on macroeconomic and fiscal policy assumptions; it plays an essential role in providing an anchor for bilateral negotiations and surveillance in the context of reformed EU fiscal rules. While the European Commission assumes a constant short-run fiscal...

To come up with a theory that explains inequality and that has common application across many countries, we need measurements of inequality across countries and through time that are reasonably comprehensive and reasonably reliable — and this is a major challenge. For most countries in the...

First paragraph: At present writing in early 2004, nearly nine million Americans remain unemployed. Millions more are underemployed, and most of all, underpaid. Forty-four million lack health insurance. Our schools, colleges, universities, roads, water systems, power lines are in decay – and...