The crisis since August 2007 provides an opportunity to observe the workings of good governance institutions under an extreme stress test and in radically different political settings. Institutions such as independent central banks, fiscal rules and regulatory oversight of public finances were...

Promoting employment at low earnings figures prominently in several debates on how to make the German social welfare system more prone to job creation. In the U.S., about 15% of all civilian jobs are subsidized via the Earned Income Tax Credit, a transfer program that refunds income taxes beyond...

Promoting employment at low earnings figures prominently in several debates on how to make the German social welfare system more prone to job creation. In the U.S., about 15% of all civilian jobs are subsidized via the Earned Income Tax Credit, a transfer program that refunds income taxes beyond...

The sharp rise in household finance, both in debt and in assets, is one of the striking empirical facts about the US economy of the last two decades. But it is still not clear what caused it. Economists, both mainstream and heterodox, seek an explanation in financial market innovation and...

Armed with the knowledge of today, a scholar revisits the US historical experience with fiscal federalism and learns how it avoided three pitfalls now facing the euro area.The lingering crisis of the euro area has made leading observers call for the completion of the economic and monetary union...