We empirically test on a panel of OECD countries the hypothesis of a direct and positive link between funding of pensions and economic growth, which is based on the idea that richer pension systems can accelerate the development of the financial system and thus promote a more efficient capital...

In this paper we reconstruct the macro regional government deficits of Italy and find that the aggregate deficit resulting from our estimates captures quite well the entire dynamics of the Italian national public deficit. This new data set shows that the ultimate cause of the accumulation of...