Für das Zielsystem, an dem die EU ihr Handeln orientiert, spielen heute zwei Komplexe zumindest in wirtschaftspolitischer Hinsicht eine zentrale Rolle. Diese lassen sich mit den Begriffen "Lissabon" und "Maastricht" titulieren. Während "Lissabon" seit dem Jahr 2005 insbesondere für die Ziele...

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...

Introduction: Theme, Objectives and Structure of the Book -- Methodology: Frontier Efficiency Measurement Techniques -- Literature Review on Efficiency Studies in the Public Sector -- Applications to German Local Governments -- Summary and Conclusions

Politicians often implement popular changes in public policies prior to elections, with the aim of improving their Election Day outcome. This research note evaluates whether such "electioneering" carries over also into politicians' extra-parliamentary activities. Evidence from the UK House of...

Conventional wisdom holds that war casualties depress incumbent popularity. We argue that the strength and even the direction of these effects is inherently context-dependent because the perception of casualties varies over time and space, affected by historical developments. While intuitive,...

Extensive research demonstrates that war casualties depress incumbent popularity. The present study argues that analyses of the political costs of warfare should also account for the financial toll of wars since a) financial costs of wars are substantial, b) these costs are publicly observed and...