This paper examines varies areas of India´s fiscal policy, in particular fiscal discipline, the structure of government spending, the tax system and fiscal federalism. It describes reforms over the past decades which, as part of the overall economic reform agenda, helped lifting the Indian...

Turkey's business sector has achieved high growth over the past few years and - on average - has coped well with increased competition. However, some labour-intensive sectors lost competitiveness prior to the currency depreciation in mid-2006 and faced employment losses, raising political...

This paper provides a synthesis of age-related developments and policies for a range of OECD countries, drawing on recent OECD work. It describes the expected impact of ageing on expenditure and fiscal pressures taking into account the current configuration of age-related policies. Since later...

France belongs to the group of OECD countries with relatively high tax levels. In recent years French governments have been increasingly aware that the tax system may have negative effects on growth and employment and some reforms have been introduced to reduce tax distortions. There has,...

Slovakia’s fundamental tax reform of 2004 considerably improved the simplicity and efficiency of the tax system by eliminating exemptions and special regimes and setting the rates for the personal income tax (PIT), the corporate income tax (CIT) and the value added tax (VAT) all equal to 19%....

This paper reviews fiscal policy, government indebtedness and its implications for economic performance in OECD countries. Government debt, expenditure and revenue relative to GDP have all risen significantly over the past 15 years and in several countries these trends are unsustainable. The...

Enhancing growth through more innovation has become a priority for Austrian policy makers in line with European policies as laid down in the Lisbon Agenda. This paper discusses Austria’s innovation performance, its innovation policies, and general framework conditions for innovation and...

Die deutsche Konjunktur hat sich deutlich abgekuehlt. Das reale Bruttoinlandsprodukt duerfte im ersten Halbjahr 2001 nur noch um 1,3% ueber dem Vorjahr gelegen haben. Ursaechlich dafuer war zum einen die Verlangsamung der Weltkonjunktur und zum anderen der Kaufkraftentzug bei den privaten...

Im Auftrag des Bundesfinanzministeriums hat das ifo Institut gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) die Effizienz der finanzpolitischen Maßnahmen in den neuen Bundesländern untersucht. Die Zwischenbilanz nach drei Jahren intensiver staatlicher Förderung ergab: Ein...

Seit 1990 wird für Ostdeutschland ein amtlicher Preisindex für Kosten der Lebenshaltung erhoben. Das Preisniveau in den neuen Bundesländern lag per saldo im Durchschnitt des zweiten Halbjahres 1990 um 3,1 % unter dem Niveau des Jahres 1989 und um 0,8 % unter dem Niveau des ersten Halbjahres...