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...

The recent financial crises pointed out the central role of public and private debt in modern economies. However, even if debt is a recurring topic in discussions about the current economic situation, economic modeling does not take into account debt as one of the crucial determinants of...

We construct economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indexes for a number of Latin American (LA) economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela) and the region as a whole, based on reports in the Spanish press. Our measures are comparable across countries. We study the...

I assess the macroeconomic and redistributive effects of tax reforms aimed at increasing tax revenue in Spain. To this end, I develop a theory of entrepreneurship that mimics key facts on the wealth and income distribution in Spain. I find two reforms that raise fiscal pressure in Spain to the...

This paper estimates the aggregate effects of government income transfers shocks for a sample of EU countries. I construct a new measure of transfers shocks based on a dataset by public finance experts of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The identification strategy consists of a...

Purpose: Total factor productivity (TFP), for a country and for a firm as well, is a crucial element for economic growth by inducing high output. Actually, workers' effort is among the important factors that positively influence the TFP. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors...