Ex ante returns, the net value that agents perceive before they take an investment decision, are understood as the main drivers of individual decisions. Hence, their distribution in a population is an important tool for counterfactual analysis and policy evaluation. This paper studies the...

This paper argues that bureaucrats are susceptible to `minimal squawk` behavior. I develop a simple model in which a desire to avoid criticism can prompt, otherwise public-spirited, bureaucrats to behave inefficiently. Decisions are taken to keep interest groups quiet and mistakes out of the...

This paper analyses the evolution of public wages and the public-private wage gaps in the period prior to the adoption of the euro in the countries then engaged on the fulfillment of the Maastricht criteria. The wage gaps are estimated controlling for employees’ observed and unobservable...

Ex ante returns, the net value that agents perceive before they take an investment decision, are understood as the main drivers of individual decisions. Hence, their distribution in a population is an important tool for counterfactual analysis and policy evaluation. This paper studies the...

Retention of skilled workers is critical for the delivery of public services in high-stakes environments such as hospital care. We study how contractual pay terms affect the retention of trainee doctors in the English NHS and the relationship between trainee doctors' attrition and hospital...

This paper explores the role of information transmission and misaligned interests across levels of government in explaining variation in the degree of decentralization across countries. Within a two-sided incomplete information principal-agent framework, it analyzes two alternative...

In 2007 the Italian central government started a program by transferring funds to regional governments to develop both private and public early childcare services. Exploiting the different timing of program implementation across regions, we evaluate its effectiveness in boosting the public...

This volume includes five self-contained chapters in the fields of public debt and fiscal transfer schemes. After an introduction to the topic, chapter 2 shows that the institutional setting of fiscal policy making needs to be considered when assessing the sustainability of fiscal policy. Using...

Just like any other employer, the municipalities can engage participants in active labor market programs in their activities. Does this possibility affect the output of municipal services? In order to answer this question a measure for output of locally provided schooling is created using factor...