Despite the growing public debate on fiscal surprise during election periods in jurisdictions where the democratic dispensation is young, comprehensive empirical works to this effect in the case of Africa are hard to find. This study, therefore, sought to contribute to the debate on two counts....

We present an analytical approach to institutional analysis that draws inspiration from control process engineering in the physical sciences. We characterize smart institutions as having three foundational features. First, smart institutions are context sensitive and expressly allow for a...

This article aims to explain the idea of X-efficiency, which indicates the difference between potential and actual output. If any business subject produces below its own potentials, it can be considered X-inefficient. To determine whether X-inefficiency in Croatian companies exists, how large it...

Does exposure to violence create more politically engaged citizens? In a PNAS paper, Barceló (2021) asks this provocative question and proposes an intricate and original socio-psychological theory to answer it. Barceló also employs a research design that seeks to account for reverse causality...

We construct multivariate, state-space mixed-frequencies models for the main components of the Spanish General Government sector made up of blocks for each one of its subsectors: Central Government, Social Security and aggregate of Regional and Local government sectors. Each block is modelled...

Die Lage der öffentlichen Haushalte in Deutschland ist gut und wird es in diesem und im kommenden Jahr bleiben. Der Staat erwirtschaftet weiter Überschüsse; der Finanzierungssaldo wird in beiden Jahren bei 0,5 Prozent in Relation zum nominalen Bruttoinlandsprodukt liegen und auch in...

In this paper, the author considers sovereign debt in the form of one-period government bonds with default risk, which can be purchased by and traded among domestic and foreign investors. She shows that the "good equilibrium" is the only stable equilibrium under some quite general assumptions,...

Besonders seit dem starken Anstieg der Staatsschuldenquoten nach dem Ausbruch der jüngsten weltweiten Finanzkrise und der Großen Rezession spielt das Thema sowohl in der öffentlichen als auch in der wissenschaftlichen Debatte eine prominente Rolle. Die Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften...

Im Sonderheft 2013 „Verdient der Markt noch unser Vertrauen?“ veröffentlichte der Wirtschaftsdienst einen Aufsatz von Carl Christian von Weizsäcker mit dem Titel „Der Vorsorge-Albtraum“. Dazu äußert sich Christian Hecker kritisch. Anschließend stellt Carl Christian von Weizsäcker...