This paper aims to address the issue of public pension reforms under demographic ageing that is likely to occur in Europe over the next 50 years. Three possible scenarios are analysed in a Blanchard OLG framework. These include: i) a decrease both in public pensions and the lump sum labour...

This paper studies welfare consequences of a soft borrowing constraint on sovereign debt which is modeled as a proportional fine per unit of debt exceeding some reference value. Debt is the result of myopic fiscal policy where the government is assumed to have a smaller discount factor than the...

As the current financial crisis has shown, macroeconomic imbalances such as persistent current account and trade deficits, can seriously undermine a country’s resilience to economic shocks. Maintaining and enhancing external competitiveness has thus become of increasing concern, particularly...

Die öffentlichen Kassen in Deutschland sind derzeit prall gefüllt und werden dies auch vorerst bleiben. Die Überschüsse sind aber nicht mit dem vorhandenen Spielraum gleichzusetzen. Mittelfristig wird sich zum einen die Entlastung der öffentlichen Haushalte bei den Zinsausgaben nach und...

This paper uses hysteresis to develop the concept of policy lock-in and lock-out. Policy changes may near-irrevocably change the economy's structure, thereby changing the distribution of wealth, income and power. That may lock-in policy by changing the political equilibrium. Exit costs that...

During the second half of the 1970s there was massive government interference in wage and price formation in Norway. Incomes policies changed in the first half of the 1980s - the hey days of "dynamic tax policies" in Norway - and during the second half of the 1980s new direct interventions in...

This paper provides a comprehensive empirical assessment of the relation between the cyclicality of fiscal policy, output volatility, and economic growth, using a large cross-section of 88 countries over the period 1960 to 2004. Identification of the effects of (endogenous) cyclical fiscal...

This paper identifies a sharp decline in the volatility of consol prices after the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815. The volatility of consol returns drops by more than half after 1815 and our empirical testing confirms a long period of remarkable stability that includes the entire Victorian...

This paper studies welfare consequences of a soft borrowing constraint on sovereign debt which is modeled as a proportional fine per unit of debt exceeding some reference value. Debt is the result of myopic fiscal policy where the government is assumed to have a smaller discount factor than the...

Die öffentlichen Haushalte werden in den Jahren 2016 und 2017 mit Überschüssen abschließen; gemessen an der nominalen Wirtschaftsleistung liegen sie in beiden Jahren bei etwa einem halben Prozent. Steuereinnahmen und Sozialbeiträge nehmen kräftig zu, die Ausgaben expandieren im...