The economic effects of federalism are unclear: some papers find that federalism has strong positive effects on a number of economically relevant variables, others find negative effects. The results often crucially hinge upon the proxies for federalism used. In this paper, we critically survey...

Persson and Tabellini (2003) show that presidential regimes and majoritarian election systems have important effects on fiscal policy, government effectiveness and productivity. Here, their dataset is extended in a number of ways: the number of countries included is increased from 85 to up to...

Die veränderten ökonomischen Rahmenbedingungen im Zuge der sich seit Anfang der 1990er Jahre beschleunigenden Globalisierung des Wirtschaftens stellen neue Anforderungen sowohl an die 'Regionalpolitik für die Regionen', also die regionale Strukturpolitik durch EU, Bund und Länder, als auch...

This paper studies correlates and determinants of direct democracy institutions (DDIs), such as referendums and initiatives, based on the premise that constitutions themselves are endogenous. Our sample covers as many as 132 countries from 1950 to 2006. We find that the likelihood that a country...

Im Zuge des zunehmenden interregionalen Wettbewerbs wird den Hochschulen als Wissensquelle für die Innovationstätigkeit der regionalen Wirtschaft eine immer größere Bedeutung beigemessen. Für die Regionen sind die Hochschulen dabei insbesondere deshalb zum Wettbewerbsparameter geworden, als...

This study contains further evidence on the economic effects of direct democratic institutions. A first study found that countries with national initiatives have higher government expenditure and are characterized by more rent-seeking activity, that the effects of direct democratic institutions...

In Germany there is a political consensus that the economic and fiscal burden of the German reunification should be shared by all three jurisdictional levels of the federal system. According to existing law, the burden-sharing between the state and local authorities has to be confined to the...

Different regional economic theories come to different conclusions with regard to the impact of (state) policies on the economic prosperity of regions. This article provides empirical evidence, that determinants like geography, urbanization, industrial mix and social capital explain 71 percent...