Suchergebnisse

The Institute of Public Finance, publisher of the journal Public Sector Economics, together with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the International Budget Partnership, held its third annual conference in Zagreb on 26 October 2018. The main theme of the conference was fiscal openness: transparency, participation and accountability in fiscal policies. Openness is widely recognized as an important feature of good fiscal policy. By enhancing governments' accountability, citizens' trust, and reducing opportunities for corruption, greater fiscal openness may contribute to a more efficient collection and distribution of public resources. Researchers around the world and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, the World Bank, the International Budget Partnership, the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, and the Open Government Partnership are showing growing interest in fiscal openness. Although expanding, this field of inquiry is still new, and many basic questions remain open. Which aspects of fiscal openness should be targeted? Where does demand for fiscal openness come from? Why are some governments more fiscally open than others? What are the effects of greater fiscal openness in practice? What is the role of technology, in particular of the internet and social media, in generating the demand for more and better fiscal information? How can we harness technology to provide such information? How can countries without extensive experience in fiscal openness benefit from those that have seen its positive effects? The Institute of Public Finance has been involved in research on fiscal openness for many years, particularly with respect to budget transparency and public participation at national and sub-national levels. Currently, the Institute is coordinating a project "Understanding, monitoring and analysing local government budget transparency: Case study of Croatia and Slovenia – Open Local Budget Index (OLBI)", funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (IP-09-2014). One of the most visible outcomes of our research has been the constant improvement of the average online budget transparency of Croatian counties, cities and municipalities and increased interest in the topic within Croatia. Therefore, it seemed natural to focus on fiscal openness and invite contributions on the topic from around the world.

The Institute of Public Finance, publisher of the journal Public Sector Economics, together with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, organized its annual conference in Zagreb on 3 November 2017. The main theme of the conference was the role of public investment in sustaining post-crisis growth, and the implications of this role for public finances in countries around the world. The recovery from the global financial crisis had until 2016 been relatively modest and uneven, led mainly by private consumption. Business fixed investment and productivity growth had been weak and inflation low despite unprecedented monetary stimulus and historically low short- and long-term interest rates in major advanced economies. At the same time, infrastructure needs were sizeable, not least because post-crisis fiscal consolidation had significantly lowered public capital spending ratios. These conditions provided a unique opportunity to increase productive public spending: by locking in low interest rates with long-maturity borrowing, well-targeted spending on education, health or research and development, significant output gains could be obtained in the long run. In such a situation, one could expect additional public investment to generate relatively high rates of return, after allowing for risk, provided that good project governance was in place. Against this background, many international fora recommended an increase in public investment to support demand and employment in the short run, and catalyze private investment and growth-enhancing innovations in the long run. That said, there were also questions about the ability of governments to identify and implement large-scale investment projects, as well as doubts about the size of public investment multipliers and long-term returns on public capital in a world of diminishing productivity growth, not to mention the impact of higher public investment on debt sustainability.

AbstractThis paper studies the determinants of cross‐border bank lending on a panel dataset comprising 17 advanced and 28 emerging market economies from 1993 to 2008. The empirical framework is based on a gravity model of financial flows. Our main findings are that the decrease in cross‐border lending in the 2007–2008 crisis was mostly due to global rather than country‐specific risk factors, and that central and eastern Europe was less affected by this decrease than other emerging market regions because of its stronger financial and monetary ties with creditor countries, and its relatively sound banking systems. These results are fairly robust to several different specifications, sub‐samples and econometric methodologies.

This paper provides a detailed account of Hong Kong on the eve of its reintegration into China as a special administrative region. It analyzes recent economic development and provides a clear overview of Hong Kong's economic, financial, institutional, and political circumstances, as well a brief look at its history over the last hundred years. It suggests the changes the economy will undergo in the transition process and what it can expect in the future