UK Airport Policy: Does the Government Have Any Influence?

Very little attention has been paid to the political impact of directly-elected mayors. This paper sheds light on the topic by comparing the English case with that of North Rhine-Westphalia. Both demonstrate that parties continue to monopolize their local political systems and most aspects of mayoral office; nevertheless, some de-party-politicization is noted. There is much to learn about the English case from observation of the mayoral model in North Rhine-Westphalia.     

Environment,public debt,and epidemics

We study whether fiscal policies, especially public debt, can help to curb the macroeconomic and health consequences of epidemics. Our approach is based on three main features: we introduce the dynamics of epidemics in an overlapping generations model to take into account that old people are more vulnerable; people are more easily infected when pollution is high; public spending in health care and public debt can be used to tackle the effects of epidemics. We show that fiscal policies can promote convergence to a stable disease-free steady state. When public policies are not able to permanently eradicate the epidemic, public debt, and income transfers could reduce the number of infected people and increase capital and GDP per capita. As a prerequisite, pollution intensity should not be too high. Finally, we define a household subsidy policy that eliminates income and welfare inequalities between healthy and infected individuals.     

The Importance of Board Risk Oversight in Times of Crisis

Journal of Financial Services Research - This study investigates the relationship between board risk oversight practices at financial institutions in the EU and systemic risk during the sovereign...     

Pollution in a globalized world: Are debt transfers among countries a solution?

We analyze the effects of a debt relief, that is, a decrease in public debt of a low-income country financed by a high-income country, on environmental quality. Under perfect mobility of assets, the debt relief increases the overall capital stock, and environmental quality when public abatements are sufficiently efficient. Welfare in both countries can also improve. Under a weak mobility of assets, capital does no more increase in the richest country, but environmental quality can improve. This comes from a crowding-out effect of debt in the high-income country, which does no more take place when the mobility of assets is significant.