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JEL Classifications: A13, H11, H50, I30, J52, N32, Z13 Through the lens of four recent books, this article considers the obstacles faced by those who undertake engaged or activist scholarship in the social sciences, examining professional methodological, theoretical, historical, and rhetorical challenges.

Angesichts der zum Teil existenzbedrohenden Konsequenzen, die sich aus den epidemiologisch ebenfalls notwendigen Maßnahmen des Teil-Shutdowns ergeben, stand und steht die Bundesregierung unter Handlungsdruck. Unbestritten ist die Notwendigkeit zu einfachen und schnell wirksamen Hilfen, denn sie dienen über die Existenzsicherung von Selbständigen und Unternehmern hinaus dem Erhalt wirtschaftlicher Strukturen. Insofern sind die zeitlich eng begrenzten November- und Dezemberhilfen nachvollziehbar, zumal damit Branchen unterstützt werden, die bereits in den vergangenen Monaten schwer unter der Krise gelitten haben. Gleichwohl führen Pauschalerstattungen des Umsatzes zu Verwerfungen zwischen Unternehmen und Wettbewerbsverzerrungen. Mit Blick auf die Nutzung des Kurzarbeitergelds bestehen Fehlanreize, Mitarbeiter zu entlassen. Um auch bei Unternehmen mit hohen Fixkosten einen Verlust zu vermeiden, ist eine hohe Erstattungsquote erforderlich, die unweigerlich mit Streueffekten einhergeht, die ausgehend von den Angaben des Bundesfinanzministeriums insgesamt schätzungsweise knapp 9 Milliarden Euro in den Monaten November und Dezember 2020 betragen. [.] ; In view of the partially existence-threatening consequences resulting from the partial shutdown due to the Corona crisis, the Federal Government was and is under pressure to act. The need for simple and effective help is unquestionable, because it helps to maintain economic structures. In this respect, the November and December aid is understandable, especially since it supports sectors that have already suffered severely from the crisis in the past month. Nonetheless, flat-rate reimbursements of sales lead to distortions between companies. In order to avoid losses for companies with high fixed costs, a high reimbursement rate is required, which inevitably goes hand in hand with scatter effects. Bases on the information provided by the Federal Ministry of Finance, these scatter effects amount to a total of almost 9 billion euros in November and December 2020. [.]

In this paper we derive analytic implicit form conditions for the qualitative analysis of government spending multipliers and the optimal level of government spending in presence of non-separability between private and public components of aggregate demand. Using the simplest neo-classical flexible price model with no capital accumulation, we show that Edgeworth dependence is not a suitable condition to utomatically assess the signs of the consumption and income multipliers, for which a more complex analysis must be carried out. We propose a detailed investigation of the form and the characteristics of the involved utility functions, which are crucial to such evaluation. We also show that if Edgeworth complementarity is strong enough, a public spending stimulus can raise at the same time private consumption and real activity. In order to reconcile our general framework with existing literature, we discuss recent examples of non-separable functional forms from the standpoint of our results, and argue that their consistency relies on specific assumptions about steady- state points.

In den vergangenen Jahren zeigte sich beim Bundeshaushalt stets das gleiche Bild: Die tatsächlichen Zinsausgaben fielen geringer aus als geplant und die Steuereinnahmen stiegen stärker als von der Bundesregierung angenommen. Beide Entwicklungen verschafften dem Bund neue Handlungsspielräume. In den Jahren 2013 bis 2018 summierten sich diese auf rund 82 Milliarden Euro, wovon zwei Drittel den geringer ausgefallenen Zinsausgaben und ein Drittel den höheren Steuereinnahmen zuzurechnen sind. Hinzu kommen in diesem Zeitraum höhere sonstige Einnahmen, wie zum Beispiel Gebühren, in Höhe von kumuliert 9 Milliarden Euro. Zum einen nutzte die Bundesregierung den zusätzlichen Spielraum für neue laufende Ausgaben, zum anderen baute sie eine Rücklage auf. Im Zeitraum von 2013 bis 2018 fielen die Ausgaben (ohne Zinsen) um insgesamt 67 Milliarden Euro höher aus als die Finanzplanung es vorsah - als Vergleich dient dabei stets der Mittelwert der zwei, drei und vier Jahre vor dem Ist-Jahr erschienenen Finanzpläne des Bundes. Die Rücklage beläuft sich auf mittlerweile 24 Milliarden Euro. Allerdings soll diese nicht ihrer eigentlichen Funktion als Risikopuffer gerecht werden, vielmehr will die Bundesregierung damit Vorhaben aus dem Koalitionsvertrag finanzieren. Damit handelt es sich letztlich auch um eine Ausgabensteigerung. Auf alternative Verwendungsmöglichkeiten dieses unverhofften Haushaltsspielraums - Steuerentlastung oder Schuldentilgung - verzichtet die Bundesregierung. Die Steuerquote des Bundes ist jüngst sogar gestiegen. ; In recent years, the federal budget in Germany has always shown the same picture: Actual in-terest expenditures for debt were lower than planned by the federal government due to a falling interest rate at the capital market. Simultaneously, tax revenues rose more strongly than as-sumed due to a solid performance of the German economy. Both developments gave new fiscal scope to the federal government. From 2013 to 2018, additional fiscal expenditures summed to about 82 billion euros, of which two-thirds are attributable to lower interest expenses and one-third to higher tax revenues.

We study the loss function of 15 European governments as implied by their budget balance forecasts. Results suggest that the shape of the loss function varies across countries. The loss function becomes more asymmetric as the forecast horizon increases and in advance of parliamentary election. Compared to that, government ideology does not affect the shape of the loss function. Under a fiscal rule, government agencies experience a higher loss when overpredicting the fiscal balance compared to an underprediction of the same size. We also document that under an asymmetric loss function government forecasts look more rational compared to a symmetric loss function. This may explain why government agencies' forecasts have been found to be too optimistic (Frankel 2012).

Exploiting a natural voting experiment we identify female preferences for real policy issues in the electorate. We then analyze whether female or male politicians in parliament more closely correspond to female preferences. Holding constant revealed constituent preferences, there is generally no difference between male and female politicians with respect to representation of female preferences. However, when focusing only on social and redistribution issues, we find that female politicians correspond in their decisions more closely to female preferences.

Based on probit estimates, this paper analyzes the effects of fiscal consolidation on the proba-bility of sovereign defaults in the short run. Using a panel of 104 developing countries from 1980 to 2009 and controlling for various economic, fiscal and political factors, we find that fiscal adjustments in general do not significantly reduce the probably of default even if they are large. Instead, the composition of budget consolidation is decisive in reducing default risk. In contrast to industrialized countries, expenditure based adjustments are not successful while revenue based adjustments lower the probability of default in the following year by 33 to 56 percent. This finding also holds when economic growth is low or government debt is high as well as when IMF lending is taken into account.

The Great Recession sparked wide interest in the economic effects of fiscal policy. That interest is reflected in an ongoing debate over the size of the fiscal multiplier. This survey article addresses three questions: What models do economists use to estimate that multiplier? Why do estimates of it vary widely? How can economists use those estimates to judiciously analyze U.S. economic policy? (JEL E62, H30, H50)

Abstract. International Congress On Political, Economic And Social Studies (ICPESS) was held second of its conference series on August 24-26, 2016, at İstanbul/Turkey. This congress orgnized by Sakarya University and Political, Economic and Social Research (PESA). The purpose of congress is to present their research papers in the areas of politics, economics and Social. Average of five presentations were planned to be delivered in each session. Theme of opening panel on 24 August was "Shadow Economy and Tax Compliance". In Congress was held parallel sessions in the 2nd and 3rd days. In general, topics of parallel sessions was about social studies, economic studies, islamic studies and political studies. While some of presentations was in English, Turkish presentation was also made. The papers presented in this congress will be considered for publication in the peer-reviewed journals after review process. In terms of importance of the conference was highly informative and to provide significant out comes to its participants.Keywords. Public Economy, Trade, Political Economy.JEL. H50, F10, P16.

This paper employs a Structural Vector Autoregression approach à la Blanchard and Perotti (2002) to investigate the impact of discretionary fiscal policy shocks on key macroeconomic variables in Malta. In order to gauge the quantitative impact of fiscal policy over the period 1995 to 2012, impact and cumulative multipliers are calculated. The response of GDP to government expenditure shocks and its components is low on impact but larger than one cumulatively. Moreover, private consumption responds positively to shocks in government spending, while private investment declines after a positive innovation to government expenditure.

The paper discusses implications for practice and theory of the recently completed Joint Evaluation of General Budget Support 2004-06 based on case studies in Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam. The paper first looks at the extent to which general budget support, on the evidence of the evaluation, stands up to common criticisms of the effects of aid on government in low income, aid dependent countries. Allowing for much caution owing to the short period of partnership general budget support (PGBS) programmes in some countries, the finding is that there are small but positive impacts (notably reducing unnecessary transaction costs and increasing discretion of government—thereby raising allocative and operational efficiency). Net benefits are generally greater where PGBS programmes are longer established. Areas of uncertainty regarding future effects are its uncertain overall contribution to the private sector and growth, its vulnerability to changes in political relations, and the limitations to raising 'pro-poor expenditure'—the main tool it has used to leverage increases in health and education spending; long term improvements in access and quality of public services will rely on better planning, budgeting and services management. The paper then considers how the evaluation results affect the way that PGBS is understood in theory: (i) it first suggests that PGBS raises entitlements (by increasing confidence that there will be continuing flows of budget support) which encourages policy development and stable donor-government collaboration structures, to which other shorter term aid arrangements gravitate, thereby reducing previous coordination failures; (ii) relations in organizations are then identified on a spectrum from market through club to hierarchy. Applied to PGBS coordination structures this suggests they are aspirant clubs, with hierarchical features strongest where PGBS is least established, and club features stronger where government is more capable and assertive; (iii) entitlements are accompanied by rules which attempt to raise positive incentive effects of the entitlement and reduce its negative incentive effects. In PGBS arrangements rules vary from hierarchical (e.g., prior actions), through club oriented (e.g., assessment on medium term trends) to market oriented (performance payments related to achievement on specific indicators). The analysis of rules in relation to PGBS incentives and operating environments (on a spectrum from rigid/uncertain to flexible/predictable) concludes that fine tuning rules in rigid/uncertain operating environments is counterproductive. Integrating PGBS performance assessment frameworks (PAFs) into government plans and monitoring systems will serve to unify rules. – aid ; budget support ; entitlement ; rules ; club ; market ; coordination

Abstract. When the government collects a supplementary indirect tax on an output, the price of that output increases by consequence. Then, using the resulting revenue for public investments will lead to an under consumption of the total revenue invested. This is due to an inflation that has been created by this mechanism. This paper investigates the determination of the net amount of investment projects taking into account the effect of inflation. We use the computable general equilibrium model to test our hypothesis. As result, we show that, some simulations are needed in order to reach the equilibrium.Keywords. Government spending, Inflation, Taxes, Investment, Computable general equilibrium.JEL. C68, E62, H50.

Im September 2021 wird in Deutschland ein neuer Bundestag gewählt. Die neue Regierung steht vor großen Aufgaben. Im Bereich der Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik gehört dazu die Überwindung der wirtschaftlichen Folgen der Coronakrise, aber auch die Bewältigung von Herausforderungen, die schon vor der Krise bestanden, durch sie aber teilweise verschärft wurden. Experten des ifo Instituts skizzieren die wichtigsten zehn Herausforderungen für Deutschland und unterbreiten Vorschläge, wie diese anzugehen sind. So sollte sich die Politik darauf konzentrieren, die Bedingungen für Erwerbsbeteiligung und Investitionen zu verbessern, und durch mehr Bildung die Produktivität steigern sowie die Chancengerechtigkeit verbessern. In der Klimapolitik gilt es, den CO2-Preis in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen. Die Finanzpolitik sollte die wirtschaftliche Erholung fördern, aber Schuldenregeln beibehalten. Auf europäischer und internationaler Ebene sollte Deutschland dem zunehmenden Protektionismus entgegentreten.

Current trends in the distribution of wealth trigger a social divide and threaten democracy. I propose to counter this evolution by enhancing the role of public capital as a redistribution and empowerment device. The governance of public capital requires two novel institutions: a socially responsible Sovereign Wealth Fund and a Federal Shareholder. This paper offers an account of their design and sources of financing.