Budget burden and benefit visibility of European central level governments

Central levels of government in European Union member countries are different regarding their basic institutions, powers, fiscal systems, accountability, public performance management, financial control bodies, and the like. In spite of this, the economic operation of such levels of government should be analyzed, evaluated, and compared from an efficiency viewpoint. This paper presents general indicators to systematically assess the burden and benefit visibility of public budgets of the International Monetary Fund member countries and specific estimates for the central subsystems of public revenue and expenditure now in force in such European countries. An important policy implication of th…

Visibility estimates of budgetary burden and benefit in European countries

Intermediate territorial levels of government in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain are different regarding their basic institutions, devolved powers, revenue and public expenditure systems, public revenue equalization mechanisms, accountability, public performance management, and financial control bodies. In spite of the complexity derived from these different characteristics, this paper presents some indicators which permit the creation of time and space fiscal visibility measurements and comparisons. It also advances systematic estimates on visibility for intermediate subsystems of public revenue and expenditure now in force in these European countries. Policy implications seem str…

Fiscal and regulatory federalism in the European Union

This contribution summarizes some quantitative results and presents relevant policy-oriented conclusions obtained from research program No. PBS91-0363. It is mainly supported by the Inter-ministerial Committee on Science and Technology of the Spanish government, which was carried out at the Public Finance and Public Sector Economics Research Unit of University of Valencia (Spain) to analyze, from a fiscal and regulatory point of view, the dynamic characteristics of federalism in the European Union. The research was performed in order to contribute to the establishment of the basis for the acceleration of the economic European integration and the future constitution of the United States of E…

Alternative fiscal visibility estimates for some OECD countries with three levels of territorial government levels

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and benefits of public revenue and expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sector of an economy. Although the importance of this visibility has been well known by academicians and practitioners for a long time, attempts to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue or expenditure and its relative financial weight in a fiscal system into consideration are recent, and indicators used till now rest on several structural parameters, each of th…

Fiscal visibility in the U.S. and the European Union

Causes of a Growing Judicial Litigation: Empirical Analysis of a Case

In Spain, judicial litigation has grown considerably since 1959 to 1987, both in absolute and relative dimensions. This trend is especially accentuated in the criminal and in the contentious-administrative jurisdictional areas. By applying an interdisciplinary (economic, juridical, sociological political …) approach, the characteristics of this phenomenon are summarized in this paper, and their numerous and complex causes are analysed. Some of these causes can be considered socially positive, as they seem connected with a greater economic and social development in the country that allows citizens to appeal more frequently and directly to justice courts; but others show a worsening in the s…

Arithmetic visibility estimates for OECD countries with three government levels

The importance of fiscal visibility has been well known for a long time but attempts to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue and expenditure in a fiscal system into consideration are recent. Indicators used until now rest on structural parameters combined in a multiplicative way with a 0 estimate always resulting in at least one of such factors being null. An alternative way to measure fiscal visibility consists of combining parametric values in an additive instead of a multiplicative form. Calculations can then show estimates which are much more sensitive to the initial values. The aim of this contribution is to present new additive indicators that are appl…

Visibility of fiscal systems and subsystems in some organization for economic cooperation and development countries

Fiscal visibility in the european union member countries: New estimates

Improvements in the efficient allocation of resources can be reached by increasing public revenue and expenditure visibility. This paper presents some indicators permitting the making of time and space fiscal visibility measurements and comparisons and advances new systematic estimates on fiscal visibility for systems and subsystems of public revenue now in force in the European Union member countries. Policy implications seem straightforward for these countries as present revenue visibility values are low in general. Allocation improvements could be obtained by implementing changes and reforms aiming to raise values of public revenue visibility and to make domestic fiscal systems and subsy…

Visibility of Burdens and Benefits of Public Revenue and Expenditure in OECD Countries with Two and Three Levels of Territorial Government

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and benefits of public revenue and expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sectors of an economy. Although the importance of this visibility has been well known by academicians and practitioners for a long time, attempts to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue and expenditure and its relative financial weight in a fiscal system into consideration are recent, and indicators used till now rest on several structural parameters, each of …

Financing systems for intermediate government levels in Spain