In this paper we analyze the influence of direct democratic institutions on the size and development of the shadow economies. The framework developed predicts a negative relationship between the degree of direct democracy and the size of the shadow economy. Countries where direct democratic...

We study the effect of political polarization on public spending using the dispersion of self-reported political preferences as our measure of polarization. Political polarization is strongly associated with smaller government in democratic countries, but there is no relationship between...

An essential condition for asserting responsibility in public finances is that they are open and transparent. The Public Finance Act mentions ways of applying the principles of openness, and also stipulates the entities obliged to present data and information on public finances. There is,...

Improving transparency and enabling the principal to hold its agents accountable is a major issue in any principal agent relationship. This paper focuses on the role of public auditors in this task and presents evidence on the impact of auditor term length and term limits on government...

A very bad deal was concluded not long ago at Love Field airport in Dallas, Texas, a deal that effectively continues for nearly a decade what has by wide consensus been one of the more pernicious, anticompetitive slices of pork-barrel protectionist federal interventions in all of American...

Financial management is a critical capability for governments, enabling them to deliver on their priorities and fulfil promises made to parliament and citizens. Skilled human resources are the foundation of these capabilities. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD)...

An essential condition for asserting responsibility in public finances is that they are open and transparent. The Public Finance Act mentions ways of applying the principles of openness, and also stipulates the entities obliged to present data and information on public finances. There is,...

Combining data on federal contract awards by agency and location, agency attributes, and the political dynamics at play over the course of a twenty-year panel, we model the relative change in contract awards within and across states as a function of the three-dimensional relationship among...

This paper argues that the role of informal institutions is central to understanding the politicization in Central and Eastern Europe generally and specifically in the formation of senior civil service (SCS) system. We focus on three diverse CEE countries in our analysis: Estonia, Hungary and...