Do independent fiscal institutions cause better fiscal outcomes in the European Union?

This paper explores the budgetary implications of the independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) in the European Union (EU). We employ a dynamic panel model for the period 2000–2019 and find that these fiscal watchdogs have a positive and significant influence not only on government budget balance for the EU member states, resulting in smaller government budget deficits, but also on countries’ compliance with fiscal rules, results that hold across alternative fiscal balances. IFIs appear to have a beneficial impact on fiscal performance and compliance with numerical targets in countries with poorly designed fiscal responsibility norms but weaker influence when fiscal rules are less binding (well-designed fiscal rules). The findings remain significant regardless the year of accession to the EU (old vs. new members) or euro-area status (euro-area vs. non-euro-area members). However, we document that IFIs play a larger role in countries that established these monitoring bodies before 2013, indicating that experience matters in IFI performance. Also, our findings show that the influence of IFIs remains if we take into account institutional reforms in which their mandates were extended with different powers and tasks, which has a positive and significant effect on fiscal balances. Moreover, we find that, under the circumstance of systemic and banking crises, these institutions are associated with improved fiscal outcomes, reflecting their increased concern about the path of public finances and their role in reducing budgetary forecasting biases. Our results are robust to a variety of specifications and models, including alternative measures of the government budget balance and after controlling for a set of institutional characteristics and for potential endogeneity in the estimations.     

Assessing Ricardian equivalence for the New Member States: Does debt-neutrality matter?

Using a structural model based on dynamic optimizing agents, we empirically test the Ricardian equivalence proposition (REP) for 11 New EU-Member States (NMS). We extend the basic model by including the government budget constraint, thus being able to evaluate whether individuals take the evolution of public debt into account. In the basic setting we cannot reject the validity of the REP for four NMS, in the extended model the relevance of the REP changes for six countries, implying that the development of government debt and long-term sustainability of public finances matters with regard to the validity of the REP.     

Fiscal impact of privatization revisited: The role of tax revenues in transition economies

In contrast to earlier literature, this paper finds empirical evidence that privatization has deteriorated fiscal balances in transition economies. The investigation focuses on the role of tax revenues in explaining the fiscal impact of privatization, as it appears that tax revenue in many transition countries remained lackluster even after the adoption of several tax reforms in the last two decades, and no formal econometric assessment has been conducted of the extent to which privatization has affected tax revenues. Using panel data for 29 Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries, the analysis finds robust signs of a strong negative impact of privatization on different tax revenue sources. The paper also provides some empirical evidence favoring the early adoption of value-added taxes that appear to have contributed to government revenue recovery.     

Assessing Ricardian Equivalence

This paper reviews the literature on Ricardian equivalence. This hypothesis may be interpreted as a generalization to the short and the long run of the theories that put no weight on the real effects of public policies on aggregate demand. We argue that Ricardian equivalence relies on both the permanent income hypothesis and the fulfillment of the intertemporal government budget constraint. The theoretical literature emphasizes several reasons for departures from this hypothesis. However, the empirical literature is inconclusive. When Ricardian equivalence is tested in a life–cycle framework the hypothesis is usually rejected, while when the empirical analysis is based on optimizing models, it is usually accepted.     

Fiscal performance and elections in the context of a transition economy

It is widely accepted that, in democratic societies, incumbent governments may use various means, such as discretionary spending, to increase their chances of re-election. In the context of potential budget constraints (e.g., large debt), the incumbent might consider alternative means. Tax collection performance could be one such means that is prone to incumbents’ electoral manipulation, particularly in transition countries with a weak institutional framework. Investigating Albania, we show that fiscal performance, measured by monthly tax revenues, is poor before elections, especially in elections that result in political change. Before all elections, we observe a reduction in tax collection ranging from 3.2 percentage points in the twelve months before elections to 4.0 percentage points in the six months before elections. This implies a drop of more than half in fiscal performance compared with its long-term “natural” or average rate. Moreover, the deterioration in performance is considerably larger, by two- to threefold, before “change elections” (i.e. elections that result in a change of the governing party). After these elections, fiscal performance improves. The key to reducing deterioration in fiscal performance associated with elections is to establish rules and institutional oversight (independent or bipartisan) that reduce the discretion of tax authorities.     

完善公共文化服务体系的财政政策研究

公共文化服务体系作为"十二五"规划的重中之重,是现代政府公共服务体系的重要组成部分,同时也关系着我国经济社会和人的全面发展。建立健全公共文化服务体系,增强公共文化产品供给和服务能力,不断满足人民群众日益增长的精神文化需求,是政府职能在公共文化领域的具体体现,也是服务型政府的历史使命。本文在深刻阐述公共文化服务体系与政府责任的基础上,通过对政府运用财政手段支持公共文化服务体系建设现状的分析,提出建立和完善公共文化服务体系的财政政策,以期推动社会主义文化大发展大繁荣。     

Growth,deficits and uncertainty: Theoretical aspects and empirical evidence from a panel of 27 countries

We examine the relationship between fiscal deficits and per-capita income growth in a panel of 27 European countries, allowing for perceived risks, in terms of fiscal sustainability, associated with additional government spending. Such risks are proxied by the conditional variability of manufacturing production and stock market returns and by the unconditional variability of two survey-based economic-sentiment indicators. To help clarifying how fiscal variables impact on growth and to provide a point of reference for the interpretation of the empirical results a structural growth model is first identified. We find evidence of an asymmetric relationship, in that fiscal deficits give rise to adverse growth effects if they coincide with high uncertainty regarding the prospects of the economy and no significant negative growth effects in the low-uncertainty case.     

一种测度基层政府财政透明度执行力的新方法

对政府执行力测度的方法研究是将其应用于实践的重要前提。针对现有方法的不足,本文提出了DELPHI-TOPSIS综合分析法。该方法对准则层指标的权重给出了统一的赋值原则,建立各可行方案之间具有可比性的数量关系,以最优理想解和负理想解两个基准为依据,精确反映各评价方案之间的差距。在实证研究中,运用DELPHI-TOPSIS法对我国31个基层政府的财政透明度执行力情况进行测量,数值结果表明本文方法的有效性和可行性。     

PRODUCTIVE GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Abstract.  We provide a comprehensive survey of the recent literature on the link between productive government expenditure and economic growth. We show that an understanding of the core results and the ensuing contributions can be gained from the study of their respective Euler equations. We argue that the existing literature incorporates many relevant aspects; however, policy recommendations tend to hinge on several knife-edge assumptions. Therefore, future research ought to focus more on idea-based endogenous growth models to check the robustness of policy recommendations. Moreover, the inclusion of hitherto unexplored types of government expenditure, e.g. on the 'rule of law', would be desirable.     

Fiscal forecasting performance in an emerging economy: An empirical assessment of Brazil

This study makes use of Brazilian data to analyze government budget balance forecast errors. Besides the analysis of the quality and efficiency of budget balance forecasts, economic, political, and institutional and governance dimensions are explored. The findings show that the data forecasts have low quality and efficiency. Furthermore, it is observed that the budget forecast error is subject to a backward-looking effect, a bias in the economic growth forecasts, as well as cyclical fluctuations. Finally, electoral cycles represent a source of overestimated forecasts, and strong institutions and governance supported by the public are able to suppress opportunistic motivations in budget forecasts.     

Government׳s role in disruptive innovation and industry emergence: The case of the electric bike in China

The role of the government has rarely been examined in the previous literature on Disruptive Innovation (DI). We present a case study of how government shaped the development trajectory of a DI through both promotional and restrictive policies in the emergence of the electric bike (E-bike) industry in China. We also show how the distinctive nature of DI influenced the strategies of the E-bike firms and how the industry and the institutional environment co-evolved in the process. We believe our study has practical implications for policy makers in making catching-up strategies as well as strategies about the pollution prevention industry and the new energy automobile industry in transition economies.     

New Keynesian dynamics in a low interest rate environment

Recent research has found that the dynamic properties of the New Keynesian model are unorthodox when the nominal interest rate is zero. Improvements in technology and reductions in the labor tax rate lower economic activity and the size of the government purchase output multiplier is very large. This paper provides evidence that these results are not empirically relevant. We show that a prototypical New Keynesian model fit to Japanese data exhibits orthodox dynamics during Japan's episode with zero interest rates. We then demonstrate that this specification is more consistent with outcomes in Japan than alternative specifications that have unorthodox properties.     

是市场的功能还是政府的作用——从传统、转型期经济向现代市场经济过渡

我们把发展中国家和经济转型期国家经过市场参数变换的区域称之为复通经济区域。本文从理论上揭示出在这些区域向现代市场经济过渡的时期必然存在着经济的零增长阶段,在此阶段如果政府无作用或作用不当,通货膨胀、贫富差距拉大和社会动荡等现象是不可避免的,这种现象从拉美等经济转型期国家的经验数据得到了验证。本文在此基础上以中国经济转型期的经验数据和实践基础论证了政府作用于市场经济的基本原理和方法,进而通过中国经济平稳增长过渡的"路径依赖"说明了中国经济改革和发展的科学性和正确性。