FISCAL POLICY, EMPLOYMENT AND GROWTH: WHY IS CONTINENTAL EUROPE LAGGING BEHIND?

In this paper we analyse the impact of distortionary taxes, transfers related to structural nonemployment and productive government expenditures on employment and long-run growth. Our theoretical model builds on Barro (JPE, 1990) which we extend by endogenizing the decision to work and by allowing two kinds of government expenditures. The model explains what we basically observe in the data: (i) higher growth and employment in the US (low taxes and low transfers related to structural non-employment), (ii) higher growth and employment in Scandinavia (high taxes, but high productive expenditures and low transfers related to structural non-employment) and (iii) lower growth and poor employment in continental Europe (high taxes, high transfers, lower productive government expenditures).