spending cuts rely too much on investment thereby undermining future long-term growth perspectives. We study the effect of … fiscal adjustments on economic growth, consumption and investment for a panel of 20 OECD countries during the 1970 … cuts. The effect is primarily a result of increased consumption rather than investment. While fiscal adjustments also boost …

In Switzerland, political concordance or direct popular rights and the resulting consociational democracy are often … held responsible for delay or even cancellation of necessary political reforms. Switzerland is, however, not the only … institutional preconditions for successful political reforms before the situations in Switzerland and Germany are discussed more …