We provide empirical estimates of the risksharing and redistributive properties of fiscal equalization among the states of the German federation. Fiscal equalization serves as a mechanism to insure state budgets against asymmetric revenue shocks, but provides almost no insurance against regional...

We provide empirical estimates of the risk-sharing and redistributive properties of the German federal from 1970 until 2006, with special attention to the effects of German fiscal system base unification. We find that tax revenue sharing between the states and the federal government and the...

We study the channels of interstate risk sharing in Germany for the time period 1970 to 2006 following the methodology of Asdrubali et al. (1996). Their framework allows us to estimate the degree of smoothing of a shock to a state's gross domestic product by factor markets, the government...

The use of futures instead of forwards exchange contracts completes the ma-turity spectrum of the correlation between spot yields and the premium. Wefind that the forward premium puzzle appears to be a precrisis phenomenonand is only observed for maturities longer than about 1 month....

We use futures instead of forward rates to study the complete maturity spectrum of the forward premium puzzle from two days to six months. At short maturities the slope coeffcient is positive, but these turn negative as the maturity increases to the monthly level. Futures data allow us to...

The large and growing US current account deficit has its counterpart in the large and growing current account surpluses in Asia and in the major oil-exporting countries. Although Europe is not part of the problem of global imbalances, Europeans are concerned that a disproportionately large...

Geldmengensteuerung mit stochastischem Geldmengenziel Die amerikanische Geldpolitik der letzten zehn Jahre ist durch zwei herausragende Ereignisse geprägt. Nach einigen Jahren des Versuchs der Geldmengensteuerung über kurzfristige Zinsziele ging das Federal Reserve Board im Oktober 1979 zu...

We present a framework of investigation into the political economy of the budget process. Our model suggests that institutional rules governing the budget process can be found to limit the importance of fiscal illusion. Empirical evidence supports that proposition. The choice of rules depends on...