Fiscal Autonomy and Total Government Expenditure: An Austrian Case-study

The ongoing debate on the efficiency of a federal system versus a centralized system has lead to a diverse and unclear empirical picture of the effects of fiscal decentralization on public sector growth. For analyzing these effects it is crucial to consider the sub-national decision power on taxing and spending. In the current paper, we test for the effects of fiscal autonomy on total government expenditure using time series from 1955 to 2007 for Austria. Determinants of government expenditure are economic growth, fiscal illusion of policy makers, and the unemployment rate. We additionally account for different degrees of sub-national fiscal autonomy. Our econometric results suggest that the often-hypothesized dampening effects of fiscal autonomy cannot be corroborated for the Austrian system.     

Under what conditions may social contracts arise? Evidence from the Hanseatic League

Social contractarians commonly take social contracts to be solely hypothetical and refrain from elaborating on the factors that influence the feasibility of the formation of social contracts. In contrast, this paper aims at providing a discussion of the conditions affecting the feasibility of social contracts. I argue that the more aligned the preferences of group members for public goods are, the more the individuals share similar social norms, and the smaller the group is the more feasible a genuine social contract becomes. I provide evidence in support of my contention from the medieval Hanseatic League. At the Hanseatic Kontor in Novgorod, one of the four major trading posts of the Hanseatic League in cities outside of Germany, German merchants agreed to live under the rule of a constitution that gave rise to a political authority for the Kontor society.     

Federalism and decentralization—a critical survey of frequently used indicators

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 on the proxies for federalism used. In this paper, we critically survey the existing indicators for both federalism and fiscal decentralization. We argue that federalism is a constitutional institution, whereas decentralization is the outcome of a policy choice, and that the two ought to be systematically distinguished because decentralization can also occur in nonfederally structured states. We further argue that institutional details are very important with regard to federalism and that dummy variables usually capture only very specific aspects of these institutional details. We use factor analysis to test whether the latent variables behind the observed indicators support these assumptions. More than two important factors are derived, implying that a more fine-grained differentiation beyond simply “‘federalism” and “decentralization” might be in order. The correlations of the most important proxies for various aspects of federalism and decentralization with a number of quasi-exogenous variables, as well as with institutional variables, are usually rather modest.     

“Core” and “Periphery” in a Monetary Union: A Macroeconomic Policy Game

We develop a dynamic game model of a two-country monetary union to study strategic interactions between macroeconomic policy makers, namely the central bank and governments. In this union, the governments of participating countries pursue national goals when deciding on fiscal policies, whereas the common central bank’s monetary policy aims at union-wide objective variables. The union considered is asymmetric, consisting of a core, with lower initial public debt, and a periphery, with higher initial public debt. For a symmetric demand shock, we derive numerical solutions of the dynamic game between the governments and the central bank using the OPTGAME algorithm. We show that mildly active cooperative countercyclical policies dominate noncooperative solutions and a scenario of no policy intervention. Optimal policies call for a brief expansionary action to bolster the effects on output and a return to a small fiscal primary surplus as soon as the crisis is over until the targeted level of public debt is reached.     

Market Instability and Revision Error in Risk Premium

This paper provides a theory and evidence that the risk premium puzzle is viewed as a phenomenon pertaining to the unstable foreign exchange market. In an unstable market, revision error uncompensated by an initial risk premium accrues due to consumer expectation revision about the ex ante uncertainty of the exchange rate. The risk premium widely deviates from its initial level, depending on the frequency of the consumer expectation revision and the degree of risk aversion. Subsequent evidence shows the existence of the revision errors for the risk premium during the Asian currency crisis and the recent financial crisis periods.     

东北农业大学“网上团支部”探索网络思想政治教育生活化模式

面对当前网络思想政治教育中存在的种种冲突和矛盾,东北农业大学提出并建立了＂网上团支部＂。通过对网上团支部的功能介绍,具体阐述了网上团支部生活化模式的构建,探索生活化的网络思想政治教育之路。     

专业英语在高等职业教育中的作用

高等职业技术院校是培养我国专业技术人才的基础。高等职业教育中专业英语教育作为重要的课程,必须加强对其重视的程度。通过高等职业院校专业英语教育的不断加强,可以提高学生的英语实践水平,为后期的专业学习打下基础,为日后的文献检索、查询打下基础。     

浅圆仓环流降氧工艺研究

本文主要对环流充氮工艺进行研究,结果表明：以氮气95%和98%两种浓度比以90%、95%和98%三种浓度进行阶段环流充氮可以节能40%左右;氮气浓度95%保持35天能够抑制锯谷盗、赤拟谷盗和书虱等的生长发育甚至死亡;在密闭保持期间氮气在粮堆中以相似的速度进行自由扩散,而且当仓内氮气浓度大于95%后继续进行补氮成本将大幅增加。     

高校财务管理存在的问题及对策分析

当前,高校在财务管理方面存在的问题,主要是缺乏财务管理意识,财务人员素质有待提高;预算管理不完善,预算执行控制乏力;高校财务管理缺乏系统的评价指标;国有资产管理混乱,内部控制制度不健全,资产账实不符;重视举债发展,忽视风险防范等。高校应从树立财务市场风险意识;优化资源配置提高资产的利用率;加强财务人员培养,全面提升高校的财务管理水平;加强支出预算的科学性,执行的严肃性;建立内部控制机制等方面入手,做好高校的财务管理工作。