This paper studies the impact of fiscal decentralization on public sector efficiency (PSE). We first use a theoretical framework that illustrates the two opposing forces that shape a non-monotonic effect of fiscal decentralization on PSE. Subsequently, we carry out an empirical analysis for 21...

Relevant economic literature frequently focuses on the impact of credit shocks on housing prices. The macroeconomic doctrine of the new consensus macroeconomics completely ignores bank credit. However, the Great Recession has highlighted the importance of bank credit. The purpose of this article...

The 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report—the eighth in an annual series—presents a multidimensional measure of national, regional, and global hunger. It shows that the world has made some progress in reducing hunger since 1990, but still has far to go. The 2013 GHI report focuses...

This paper investigates the relationship between government spending and economic growth. Economic theory generally expects a negative relationship between these variables for rich countries with large public sectors. However, empirical studies often cannot find a robust negative relationship...

Since the 1980s, the share of wages in national income declined almost all over the world. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of labour’s share in selected OECD countries. Several theoretical approaches explaining functional income distribution are summarised. In light of the...

In most OECD countries the redistributive effect of the tax system has been substantially weakened by deliberate tax policies over the last decades. Despite some signs that this trend may have recently come to a halt a comprehensive policy change is not underway. One major argument brought...

This paper examines China's emergence as a global player in international markets over the last few decades. It provides an overview of China's trade policy environment following the country's process of market opening and joining the WTO. The report analyses China’s role in international...

Since the 1970s almost all OECD countries have published projections or forecasts of future <p> energy consumption. By now, three decades later, the actual values of energy consumption are <p> available for the same number of countries and thus a considerable amount of empirical data is <p> available...</p></p></p>

This article examines the effect of the degree of decentralization of social protection expenditure on economic growth, using panel data for twenty OECD countries over the period 1990-2005. Our results show a positive impact of the subnational share of total government expenditure in social...

Productivity growth is the main long-run determinant of living standards. However, there are some distinctions between productivity growth as conventionally measured and the potential of the economy to raise living standards. Specifically, insofar as the share of depreciation in output...