The circular interplay between demography-employment-productivity-PayGo is investigated for Europe and Us. Looking forward to the mid-long run, the paper offers simulations of the burden each effective worker and each active citizen will have to bear to finance via pay-as-you-go public health...

Aging populations continue to put strain on government finances, as such demographic shifts cause fewer tax dollars and more citizens on pension programs. What effect does this have on the size of government across countries worldwide? We study this using the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW)...

The Croatian system of old-age provision comprises a traditional public pay-as-you-go scheme and a mandatory funded scheme (“second pillar”) that will provide increasing amounts of supplementary pensions to those entering retirement in the future. Due to the continuing economic crisis, the...

Public pay-as-you-go pensions still form the dominant pillar of old-age provision in Germany. This is in marked contrast to the situation in Anglo-Saxon countries. It has advantages if labour markets are strong, e.g., following a quick recovery from the Great Recession. It has disadvantages, as...

This paper studies the long-run fiscal consequences of balanced budget rules (BBR) that are enshrined in a country's constitution. Using historical data dating back to the 19th century and applying a difference-in-difference approach we find that the introduction of a constitutional-BBR reduces...

This paper studies the long-run fiscal consequences of balanced budget rules (BBR) that are enshrined in a country's constitution. Using historical data dating back to the 19th century and applying a difference-in-difference approach we find that the introduction of a constitutional-BBR reduces...