We estimate changes in fiscal policy regimes in Portugal with a Markov Switching regression of fiscal policy rules for the period 1978-2007, using a new dataset of fiscal quarterly series. We find evidence of a deficit bias, while repeated reversals of taxes making the budget procyclical....

Using bootstrap panel analysis, allowing for cross-country correlation, without the need of pre-testing for unit roots, we study the causality between government revenue and spending for the EU in the period 1960-2006. Spend-and-tax causality is found for Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and...

The prevalence of different fiscal regimes is important both for practical policy reasons and to assess fiscal sustainability, notably for European Union countries. The purpose of this article is to assess, with a panel data set, the empirical evidence concerning the existence of Ricardian...

According to Keynesian economics wisdom, government debt has an effect on the economy since consumers see government debt as net wealth. However, according to the debt neutrality hypothesis of Ricardo (1817), popularised by Barro (1974), such effects would be absent. This paper's results,...

We compute DEA efficiency scores and Malmquist indexes for a panel data set comprising 68 Portuguese public hospitals belonging to the National Health System (NHS) in the period 2000-2005, when several units started being run in an entrepreneurial framework. With data on hospital services' and...

Using annual data from 14 European Union countries, plus Canada, Japan and the United States, we evaluate the macroeconomic effects of public and private investment through VAR analysis. From impulse response functions, we are able to assess the extent of crowding-in or crowding-out of both...

We assess the sustainability of public finances in the EU15 over the period 1970-2006 using stationarity and cointegration analysis. Specifically, we use panel unit root tests of the first and second generation allowing in some cases for structural breaks. We also apply modern panel...

We apply recent panel cointegration methods to a structural equation between government expenditure and revenue. Allowing for multiple endogenous breaks and after computing appropriate bootstrap critical values, we conclude for fiscal sustainability in the overall EU15 panel

In this paper we analyse public sector efficiency in the new member states of the EU compared to that in emerging markets. After a conceptual discussion of expenditure efficiency measurement, we compute efficiency scores and rankings by applying a range of measurement techniques. The study finds...

Using alternative approaches to determine fiscal episodes, I assess expansionary fiscal consolidations in Europe, via panel models for private consumption. There is some concurring evidence for several budgetary spending items while the asymmetric effects of fiscal episodes do not seem to be...