In this paper we analyze the macroeconomic forecasts of the Consensus Forecasts for 12 countries over the period from 1996 to 2006 regarding bias and information efficiency. A pooled approach is employed which permits the evaluation of all forecasts for each target variable over 24 horizons...

In this paper we analyze the macroeconomic forecasts of the Consensus Forecasts for 12 countries over the period from 1996 to 2006 regarding bias and information efficiency. A pooled approach is employed which permits the evaluation of all forecasts for each target variable over 24 horizons...

In this paper we analyze the macroeconomic forecasts of the Consensus Forecasts for 12 countries over the period from 1996 to 2006 regarding bias and information efficiency. A pooled approach is employed which permits the evaluation of all forecasts for each target variable over 24 horizons...

Zur anhaltenden Krise auf den internationalen Finanzmärkten ist eine gravierende Störung auf den Güter- und Arbeitsmärkten hinzugekommen. Was seit dem Zusammenbruch einer US-amerikanischen Spezialbank im Herbst letzten Jahres an Belastungen über die Weltwirtschaft hereingebrochen ist, hat...

Zur anhaltenden Krise auf den internationalen Finanzmärkten ist eine gravierende Störung auf den Güter- und Arbeitsmärkten hinzugekommen. Was seit dem Zusammenbruch einer US-amerikanischen Spezialbank im Herbst letzten Jahres an Belastungen über die Weltwirtschaft hereingebrochen ist, hat...

There is a growing empirical literature studying whether fiscal rules reduce borrowing costs. Nevertheless, it remains an open question whether these rules are effective genuinely or just because they mirror fiscal preferences of politicians and voters. In our analysis of European bond spreads,...

We investigate the political determinants of risk premiums which sub-national governments in Switzerland have to pay for their sovereign bond emissions. For this purpose we analyse financial market data from 288 tradable cantonal bonds in the period from 1981 to 2007. Our main focus is on two...

This paper studies the effects of political factors, mainly partisanship, on corporate taxes in the past 30 years - a period of intensifying competitive pressure in Europe. Extending the Zodrow-Mieszkowski model by decision-makers who have ideological preferences yields the hypothesis that...