Search results for "reform"
showing 10 items of 691 documents
Tax Design in the OECD: A Test of the Hines-Summers Hypothesis
2011
This paper investigates the effects of economic size and trade openness on tax design in the OECD. Using data for 30 OECD countries over the 1965–2007 period, we test the recently proposed Hines-Summers [2009] Hypothesis, according to which the smaller the size and the greater the openness of the economy, the more it will rely on expenditure taxes and the less on income taxes. Our findings show that the Hines-Summers Hypothesis can claim broad, statistically significant, and robust empirical support in the OECD data sets we examined.
Structural reforms in a debt overhang
2014
We assess the effects of reforms in product and labor markets in a model economy featuring credit restrictions and pre-existing long-term debt. Both elements, which are core features of the current scenario faced by some euro area countries, combine to produce a slow and protracted deleveraging of the private sector and a persistent recession following a negative financial shock. In this environment, we show that product and labor market reforms may stimulate output and employment even in the short run, despite their defl ationary effects. Furthermore, by favoring a faster recovery of investment and collateral values, product market reforms bring forward the end of deleveraging and the exit…
A reply to "banking crises, labor reforms, and unemployment: A comment"
2015
Aleksynka (2015) points to some important methodological flaws in the labor market indicators data used in Bernal-Verdugo, Furceri and Guillaume (2013) [BFG]. This paper revisits the empirical findings presented in BFG, and shows that the results and conclusions are little affected by these methodological flaws. In particular, we find that: (i) while in countries with more flexible labor markets the impact of banking crises is sharper but short-lived, in countries with more rigid labor markets the effect is initially more subdued but highly persistent; (ii) comprehensive labor market reforms have a positive impact on unemployment, albeit only in the medium term.
Financial Reforms and Income Inequality
2012
Available online 8 June 2012
Reforming a complicated income tax system: The political economy perspective
2006
Abstract In this paper we analyze the political economy of revenue-neutral income tax reforms when a government aims at cutting back deduction possibilities in exchange for lower tax rates (“tax-cut-cum-base-broadening”). We show that the individual decision whether to support or reject a reform proposal depends on how strongly the voter is affected by all available exemptions, even if the cut of only one single exemption is at stake. The voting outcome in the society depends on the joint distribution of the deductible characteristics. Due to implicit logrolling there are cases where only symmetrical tax reforms are possible, whereas for other properties of the joint distribution only asymm…
Can re-regulation of the financial sector strike back public debt?
2015
This paper analyzes the impact of financial sector policy changes on the dynamics of public debt. Using a panel of 89 countries from 1973 to 2005, we find that while the implementation of (large) financial liberalisation policies significantly raises the public debt growth rate, the adoption of financial re-regulation measures leads to a mild reduction of public debt. Looking at the different typologies of financial sector policy changes, we show that stricter banking supervision, privatisations and restrictions to international capital flows contribute to a fast decline of the growth rate of public debt. In contrast, the removal of entry barriers and the elimination of interest rate contro…
What determines the likelihood of structural reforms?
2015
We use data for a panel of 60 countries over the period 1980–2005 to investigate the main drivers of the likelihood of structural reforms. We find that: (i) external debt crises are the main trigger of financial and banking reforms; (ii) inflation and banking crises are the key drivers of external capital account reforms; (iii) banking crises also hasten financial reforms; and (iv) economic recessions play an important role in promoting the necessary consensus for financial, capital, banking and trade reforms, especially in the group of OECD-countries. Additionally, we also observe that the degree of globalisation is relevant for financial reforms, in particular in the group of non-OECD cou…
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 …
El patrón oro y el euro. Una reflexión a partir de la lectura de A Tract on Monetary Reform
2017
This paper makes a comparison between the gold standard and the euro through a study of Keynes’s views on the need to manage the macroeconomic situation of an industrial economy. The essay centers on Keynes’s first relevant economic work of the post World War I years, A Tract on Monetary Reform, analyzing its theoretical and practical content. The situation of monetary instability and the choice of exchange regime (to return or not to the gold standard, with the parity prior to the war) were the factors that attracted Keynes’s attention in those years. Similarities between the gold standard and the present euro system bestow a certain interest on Keynes’s ideas and on the economic discussio…
Intercultural Studies in Higher Education. Policy and Practice
2019
International audience; This book explores the study of policies and practices in Higher Education by comparing systems, institutions, programs, innovations, results and cultures. In a rapidly changing global and international marketplace, the growth of higher education has occurred within distinct cultural contexts, meaning that change is reflected within local, regional, national and global perspectives. Using a single data methodology across countries and continents, the editors and contributors explore higher education reforms between global and local dimensions, the expansion of access and democratisation, and relevant aspects in the organisation and management of higher education. In …