There is evidence in the literature of fiscal consolidation episodes producing (non-Keynesian) expansionary effects (e.g. Alesina and Ardagna, 1998). We replicate this result for a panel of OECD countries under exogeneity of the fiscal tightening decision, and provide evidence that this decision...

The containment of health care expenditure is one of the major challenges facing public policymakers in the developed countries. This paper provides evidence of significant differences in the cross-country level of efficiency of health care expenditure, meaning that potential cost savings for...

Hernandez de Cos points out that changes in the structure of public sector, which were particularly large in Spain since the late seventies, could lead to significant errors in estimates of elasticities calculated on long reference periods; if only annual data are available this may greatly...

In this paper we attempt to evaluate the sustainability of Spanish fiscal policy, taking as a benchmark the test proposed by Quintos (1995). In this analysis we take into account the possible existence of structural breaks in the cointegration relationship between public revenues and...

Fiscal decentralisation has been one of the key features of developments in the Spanish public sector in recent decades. There has been a gradual shift of responsibilities for the management of certain services from the State to the regional (Autonomous) governments (RGs) along with development...

En este trabajo se ilustran los efectos de distintas medidas de consolidación fiscal sobre la actividad económica mediante simulaciones realizadas con un modelo de equilibrio general calibrado para la economía española. Los resultados muestran que, con carácter general, el proceso de...

In this paper we reflect on the role that fiscal policy could play in the resolution of the crisis in Eurozone countries crippled by both public and private debt, and beset by growth and competitiveness problems. As an illustration, we revisit the Spanish case, a paradigmatic example of the...

This paper seeks to link the debate surrounding short-term fiscal multipliers with the medium and longer-term impact of fiscal consolidation on public debt sustainability. A literature review and empirical findings for state-dependent multipliers confirm that there is considerable uncertainty...

Given that savings behaviour and worker productivity have strong life-cycle components and given that demographic profiles vary across countries, population age structure should be linked to differences in levels of economic development. In this paper we measure the economic importance of age...