Official adjustments of the budget balance to the cycle merely assume that the only category of governmentspending that responds automatically to the cycle is unemployment compensation. But estimatesshow otherwise. Payments for pensions, health, subsistence, invalidity, childcare and subsidiesof...

Official calculations of automatic stabilizers are seriously flawed since they rest on the assumption that the only element of social spending that reacts automatically to the cycle is unemployment compensation. This puts into question many estimates of discretionary fiscal policy. In response,...

The paper is devoted to an econometric analysis of learning foreign languages in all parts of the world. Our sample covers 193 countries and 13 important languages. Four factors significantly explain learning, two of which affect the broad decision to learn, while two concern as well the choice...

How far has English already spread? How much further can we expect it to go? In response to the first question, this chapter tries to identify the areas of life where English already serves as a lingua franca in the world (more or less) and those where the language faces sharp competition and...

It is generally assumed that distance in the gravity model strictly reflects frictions impedingbilateral trade. However, distances North-South could also reflect differences in factorendowment that provide opportunities for profitable trade. This paper investigates the hypothesisthat if we...