This paper analyzes the causes and implications of recent financial crises. Financial crises in general lead to changes in both theory and practice of economics. The paper takes an historical overview. The global consensus of economic theory during the 20th century is discussed. The paper...

Colombia is an interesting case study within emerging countries. Through 150 years of democratic tradition and seven decades of sound fiscal and monetary policies, the country has displayed institutional strength and economic growth, in spite of strong external shocks, rent-seeking by sectoral...

The reinforced Stability and Growth Pact entered into force in December 2011 with a new set of rules for economic and fiscal surveillance of the EU Member States. To strengthen the effective enforcement the SGP introduced the policy innovation of reverse qualified majority voting in the EU...

The U.S. retirement system, and the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Traditional pensions have become much less common, and individuals are increasingly responsible for planning and managing their own retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k) plans. Yet...

With the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, many governments around the world face serious fiscal difficulties. The deteriorating fiscal condition is a critical concern, as it suggests that governments will have limited resources to address important issues of our time. Greater fiscal transparency...

This paper investigates the effects of systematic (or rules-based) and non-systematic (exogenous) fiscal policy changes on output growth in Greece, focusing also on the composition of fiscal policy. Exogenous fiscal policy changes are associated with Keynesian responses (with the exception of...

Tax-exempt organizations are subsidized relative to taxable organizations because income related to furthering their core mission is excluded from income tax. The value of this subsidy is unclear. There is no government-provided estimate, and the tax benefit for any organization depends on the...

Spanish Abstract: Este artículo lleva a cabo una revisión de la literatura académica que estudia los determinantes del tamaño del sector público. En primer lugar, se analizan los modelos clásicos basados en el teorema del votante mediano, en el que las decisiones públicas vienen...

We revisit the issue of optimality of public debt in a general equilibrium framework. Specifically, we endow the government with the power to set the interest rate on bonds it issues and by doing so we move beyond the set of competitive equilibria and extend the domain of the standard Ramsey...

This paper assesses the effect of social security privatization on the government budget, economic efficiency, national saving, and the distribution of resources across generations. It is shown that the benefits of privatization most often touted by privatization advocates can be achieved by...