Austerity is a concept that is often used in the public debate. It refers to fiscal policy measures that reduce government spending and raise taxes for the purposes of closing a government budget deficit. This paper analyzes the concept in the context of the current European economic crisis and...

The paper is a contribution to the study of the redistributive impact of public sector intervention across living generations. We aim to work on a comprehensive approach, so that reforms involving several taxation and spending programmes, possibly implemented over several years, may be assessed....

It does not take more than a glance at the headlines to see that European countries are in trouble. From Greece to Britain, from France to Portugal, it is becoming clear that the modern welfare state is unsustainable, facing fiscal catastrophe, stagnant economic growth, punishing taxes, and...

In this article, I evaluate the conventional tax-spend hypothesis versus the fiscal illusion hypothesis by analyzing quarterly data from 1959 to 2007 on U.S. federal revenues and expenditures within an error-correction framework. The findings suggest that (a) decreases in taxes do not...

In recent years, some fiscal conservatives have argued that reducing tax revenues and increasing budget deficits is an effective strategy for limiting federal spending. This strategy is commonly known as “starve the beast.” Niskanen (2006) convincingly demonstrates that reductions in federal...

The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between government budget spending and the effect on the growth and structure of the GDP of Croatia during the past two decades. The starting working assumption (hypothesis) is that the volume of total budget expenditure (including...

In this paper we evaluate the long-term performance of the Polish public pension system from three perspectives: fiscal stability, intergenerational redistribution and adequacy of pension benefits. We assess the two recent public pension reforms undertaken in Poland: 1) the shift of a part of...

Alors qu'en décembre 2012, le Trésor britannique publiait un rapport préconisant une refonte du modèle des PFI et définissant quelques pistes de restructuration pour les futurs partenariats public-privé, proposant une plus forte participation publique au financement des contrats (aux fonds...

It is generally recognized that, in the absence of policy changes, the U.S. faces a long-term fiscal challenge. But, as a result of the 2007-09 recession, the U.S. is currently facing an unemployment crisis — the unemployment has been above or near 8 percent since February 2009. Furthermore,...

This article intends to analyze the legal qualification of public expenditure in the Brazilian budgetary system, considering the preeminent investments to be done in a relatively short time for important events, such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games. We highlight therefore that the...