Search results for "jel:H5"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
Government size, composition, volatility and economic growth
2008
This paper analyses the effects in terms of size and volatility of government revenue and spending on growth in OECD and EU countries. The results of the paper suggest that both variables are detrimental to growth. In particular, looking more closely at the effect of each component of government revenue and spending, the results point out that i) indirect taxes (size and volatility); ii) social contributions (size and volatility); iii) government consumption (size and volatility); iv) subsidies (size); and v) government investment (volatility) have a sizeable, negative and statistically significant effect on growth. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Assessing long-term fiscal developments : a new approach
2011
We use a new approach to assess long-term fiscal developments. By analyzing the time-varying behaviour of the two components of government spending and revenue – responsiveness and persistence–, a feature not captured by automatic stabilisers, we are able to infer about the sources of fiscal deterioration (improvement). Drawing on quarterly data, we estimate recursively these components within a system of government revenue and spending equations using a Three-Stage Least Square method for eight European Union countries plus the US. The results suggest that significant changes in the fiscal stance (including those related to the current crisis) are reflected in the estimates of persistence …
The financial impact of Spanish pension reform: A quick estimate
2012
In this paper, we present a preliminary estimate of the financial impact of the recent reform of the Spanish pension system. After updating the projections of pension expenditure constructed in de la Fuente and Doménech (2010) for the period 2008-2060, we analyze the impact on this variable of raising the retirement age from 65 to 67 years, extending from 15 to 25 years the period over which wages are averaged to calculate the starting pension and increasing from 35 to 37 the number of contribution years required to obtain a 'full pension.' Conditional on a series of assumptions about the evolution of employment, productivity and demographics, our estimates suggest that these measures will …
Demand for life annuities from married couples with a bequest motive
2006
The aim of this paper is to explain the ‘annuities puzzle’ in greater depth by introducing the bequest motive. It will try to determine whether this motive really is a relevant feature influencing the demand for life annuities from married couples. With this aim in mind, we develop an optimization model of the utility provided by purchasing a life annuity with contingent survivor benefit or a joint survivor life annuity. Our model is based on that first put forward by Brown and Poterba (2000), to which we have added elements from other models, such as Friedman and Warshawsky's (1990) and Vidal and Lejárraga's (2004), which include the bequest motive. This will enable us to calculate the ann…
In-work benefits for married couples: an ex-ante evaluation of EITC and WTC policies in Italy
2014
This paper investigates labor supply and redistributive effects of in-work benefits for Italian married couples using a tax-benefit microsimulation model and a multi-sectoral discrete choice model of labor supply. We consider two in-work benefit schemes following the key principles of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Working Tax Credit (WTC) existing in the US and the UK, respectively. The standard design of these in-work benefits is however augmented with a new benefit premium for two-earner households in order to overcome the well-known disincentive effects that these welfare instruments may generate on secondary earners. In simulation, the proposed in-work benefits are finance…
Impact of Global Economic Crisis on the European Welfare States
2013
The global economic crisis and the subsequent weaker growth are putting under pressure welfare states in the EU. This paper aims at discussing the effects of the crisis at the social level and at identifying whether the classic European welfare state models (Nordic, Continental, Anglo-Saxon and Mediterranean) are still valid in today’s economy. An answer will be tried using the mathematical tool of principal components analysis. The results will be observed in graphs where the states taken into consideration respect the classical welfare models or they regroup themselves into new circumstances’ adapted models. Even though the classical welfare models are generally still checked up with the …
Measuring the Regional Incidence of Taxes and Public Expenditure: The Available Methodology and its Limitations
2014
This article reviews the basic methodology used to estimate the regional incidence of taxes and public expenditure, which we call the fiscal incidence approach, and compares it with the cash flow approach, which measures tax revenues and expenditures in terms of the associated monetary cash flows. In this context, it considers critically the particular version of the cash flow approach used in Spain. The article also looks at the different ways in which economists have tried to decompose fiscal balances into a structural or distributive component and a cyclical component, and critically reviews present practices.
The Universitary Educational System, Cibernetic System
2009
The national system of higher education shall solve one of the most difficult and most important social and human issues – the education and training of the young generation, of the labour hand. The system of higher education appears as a subsystem of the national educational system and of the society. That is why it appears the urgency of the artificial unrestriction of the university educational subsystem by the economy system. Economy’s vision of the university’s education subsystem must respond in these conditions to the following questions: What services and under what form should give the university at a time? Who should provide these services? What methods and strategies will be addr…
LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE INTRODUCTION AND IMPLEMENT OF THE PROPOSED `FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TAX` ON PENSION FUNDS. IMPACT ON TRANSACTION COS…
2012
In economies in which pension obligations are substantial, it is important that there is a high degree of trust in the financial reporting of pensions by employers and by pension plans. The objective of this paper is to assess legal considerations regarding the introduction and implement of financial transaction tax mechanisms in private pension system. In line with this objective, an understanding of causes, implications, solutions for pensions is essential to being able to efficiently and effectively create a secure fiscal environment.
Projecting Pension Expenditures in Spain: On Uncertainty, Communication and Transparency
2008
In this paper we suggest a set of indicators about the future performance of the Spanish public pension system and a suitable method of representing their uncertainty, in order to improve the communication to the public opinion about its main future challenges. Spain seems a particularly interesting case in Europe to illustrate our proposals, since the social security system has been in surplus for nine consecutive years, in sharp contrast to the projections made just a decade ago, but, at the same time, most projections foresee for Spain one of the highest increases in public expenditure among EU countries due to ageing. We argue that simple, transparent, credible, public and periodic indi…