Zunehmende Budgetprobleme bedrohen die Handlungsfähigkeit öffentlicher Gebietskörperschaften. Bisherige Arbeiten zur Haushaltskonsolidierung beschränken sich auf deskriptive Argumente. Mit positiver Theorie und im Rahmen der Neuen Politischen Ökonomie analysiert diese Arbeit strukturelle...

Durch das 1985 verabschiedete Gramm-Rudman-Hollings-Gesetz wurde in den USA versucht, die hohe Neuverschuldung des Staates abzubauen. Feste Defizitgrenzen und die Drohung gleichmäßiger proportionaler Kürzungen aller Ausgaben sollten dieses Ziel erreichen. In der Arbeit wird untersucht, wo die...

Using panel data of 17 OECD countries for 1980-2011, we find that the distributional consequences of fiscal consolidations depend significantly on the level of private indebtedness. Austerity leads to a strong and persistent increase in income inequality during periods of private debt overhang....

In many federal countries, local governments run large deficits, even when fiscal supervision by state authorities is tight. I investigate to which extent party alignment of governments and fiscal supervisors influences budget deficits. The dataset includes 427 German local governments for the...

The fiscal consolidation measures adopted in many euro area countries over 2010-13 reduced excessive domestic fiscal imbalances, but came at the cost of short-term output losses. This simultaneous tightening of fiscal policy raised concerns that such output losses might be exacerbated by...

This paper assesses the relationship between public and private wages in the EU, as measured by general government and manufacturing compensations, respectively. We find that the long-run relation between the two is stronger when the government is a large employer. Manufacturing compensations...

This paper analyses the changes in orientation and composition of Brazilian fiscal policy, focusing on three recent periods and seeking to explore their relationship with economic performance. The first period (2005-2010) was characterised by fiscal expansion, with public investment and...

We study the desirability of limits on the public debt and of political turnover in an economy where incumbents have an incentive to set public expenditures above the socially optimal level due to rent-seeking motives. Parties alternate in office and cannot commit to future policies, but they...

We analyze whether there are negative (positive) long-term effects of austerity measures (stimulus measures) on potential output growth. Based on the approach of Blanchard and Leigh (2013) and Fatás and Summers (2016) and using a novel dataset of narratively identified fiscal policy shocks, we...

Fiscal adjustments consisting of spending cuts or tax increases are generally presented as the unavoidable way for achieving public finance sustainability in the long term. However, this view of fiscal consolidation processes is limited as it leaves out other aspects related to public sector...

The paper presents a model-based assessment of fiscal multipliers operating in the euro area during the period 2011-2014. The assessment is conditional on two distinct reactions of the sovereign risk premium (either responding endogenously to fiscal shocks or being an exogenous process) and two...

Staatsausgaben forcieren. (ii) Für die südeuropäischen Staaten greift die bloße Forderung nach einer Reduktion der Staatsverschuldung ohne Berücksichtigung der negativen Beschäftigungseffekte zu kurz.. - The art of controlled public finances in times of high public debt. Legitimation of...