Suchergebnisse

This paper develops on a Solow type of model where the government as introduced as a decision maker. Additionally, this paper introduces consumer decisions and assumes that individuals can be differentiated by their relative factor endowment (labor and private capital). The results indicate that the economy's growth rate has an inverted U-shape relationship with the tax rate on private capital τ . They also indicate that the tax rate has a positive relation with the amount of money government spend on consumption, θ, (rather than on investment in public capital). The paper also concludes that the choice of the tax rate will be above the optimal level and hence the potential growth rate will not be achieved. Taking the analysis further, it can be assumed that voters will try to correct lower tax rates of public investment by choosing an higher tax rate. This tax rate will be higher if society is more disparate in terms of income distribution. However, by reducing θ, τ automatically decreases thus bringing us closer to the optimum. Finally, the conclusion from a public policy perspective is that there is a negative relationship between the chosen tax rate and public investment and that this relationship is highly sensitive to the model parameters. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper is concerned with two things: finding an objective and easily quantifiable measure of government efficiency and testing possible determinants of such quality. As measures of government efficiency we use the ratios of infant mortality rate to health expenditures as a percentage of GDP and the ratios of drop out and illiteracy rates to education expenditures as a percentage of GDP. We assume that government efficiency in providing health and education services depends on economic, political and cultural factors. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper is concerned with two things: finding an objective and easily quantifiable measure of government efficiency and testing possible determinants of government quality. As measures of government efficiency, we used ratios of infant mortality rate to health expenditures as a percentage of GDP, and ratios of drop out and illiteracy rates to education expenditures as a percentage of GDP. We assume that government efficiency in providing health and education services depends on economic, political and cultural factors. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Este estudo tem como objetivos examinar o impacto do programa NORTE 2020 no VAB e emprego da economia portuguesa e se a riqueza global gerada se concentra na região Norte.
Com base na análise input-output, estima-se que o investimento total aprovado no âmbito deste programa tenha um impacto no VAB nacional na ordem dos € 4 mil milhões e leve a criação de 112 mil postos de trabalho. O impacto na riqueza produzida concentra-se esmagadoramente na Região Norte.
A competitividade e internacionalização corresponde à maior fração de investimento total aprovado por prioridade temática, mas é onde o impacto no VAB por euro investido é menor, distanciando-se dos multiplicadores das restantes prioridades. O efeito multiplicador no VAB do investimento no domínio do capital humano é o mais significativo.

This paper investigates empirically the determinants of air quality in a large cross-section of countries. We assess air quality by sulfur emissions and, following the literature, we consider three different groups of determinants: economic, political and cultural. We confirm the existence of an EKC for sulfur (inverted-U shaped relation between wealth and pollution). Political determinants are proxied by ethnic or religious fractionalization indexes and the country's legal origin (we consider five possible legal origins: English common law, French civil law, German civil law, Scandinavian legal system and Socialist legal system). Cultural determinants are assessed by the percentage of a country's population that belongs to one of the three main religions (Catholic, Muslim or Protestant). Our goal is to establish the economic, political and cultural profile of a country that manages to be efficient in providing good air quality. We conclude that a country will provide higher air quality if it has one or more of the following characteristics: it is ethnic and/or religious homogeneous, it has a German or Scandinavian legal tradition; it is Protestant. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Value Added Tax (VAT) standard rate Laffer curves are estimated for the European Union of twenty seven countries (EU27) over the period 1995-2011, using a twice continuously differentiable VAT revenue quadratic flexible functional form. A business cycle effect on the Laffer curve is found. In recession years, VAT revenue is typically lower, the curve steeper, and the VAT standard rate that maximises VAT revenue slightly smaller than previously. These results can be explained with reference to changes in the composition of consumption and VAT collection enforcement. A countercyclical VAT standard rate policy (procyclical fiscal policy), observable in a few countries, not only increases the underlying business cycle volatility but may also result in long-term instability of VAT revenue. In 2011, the maximum VAT standard rates in expansion and recession were respectively 22.0 and 21.5 per cent. Most of the EU27 countries were operating in the non-prohibitive range of the curve; although Portugal, with a VAT standard rate of 23 per cent, along with several other countries with similar rates, was already operating in the prohibitive range of the curve. VAT standard rate Laffer curves shifted to the left and maximum VAT standard rates declined during the analysed period. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Paper also presented at: ANNUAL CONGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, 21St, Vienna, Austria, 24-28 August, 2006; SPRING MEETING OF YOUNG ECONOMISTS (SMYE-2009), XIV, Istanbul, Turkey, 23-25 April, 2009

We describe the neoclassical view of the business cycle by European Institutions in the Euro Area, and derive the stylized facts of business cycles and trends for Germany and Portugal in the period 1991–2018. The data are extracted from the European Commission's AMECO database. To separate cycle and trend, we use the decomposition available in the AMECO database for the output, and the Hodrick-Prescott filter for the other variables. The results show that the amplitude of the business cycle and persistence of shocks are greater in Portugal than in Germany. They also show that the stylized facts of the business cycles of the two economies are quite different. Moreover, common shocks have asymmetric consequences. In the long run, there has been a convergence of inflation, general government structural balances, and real unit labour costs, but general government consolidated gross debt, fixed investment, and per capita potential GDP have been increasingly diverging, despite the behaviour of real wages and net exports in the two countries. Additionally, temporary shocks have permanent effects on the Portuguese economy. The results raise questions about the place-neutral macroeconomic policy enforced by the European institutions in the Euro Area, particularly in what concerns cohesion Member States. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

The European Union developed a set of different policies to deal with different problems, such as macroeconomic stability, unemployment, inequality and the environment. However, these problems are interconnected and cannot be adequately addressed without an integrated approach that takes into account the different territories, which is possible within the existing EU institutional framework, as we shall argue while identifying the key European institutions necessary for doing so. But this integrated view has not been adopted so far. We argue that a normative circular conception of the economy provides a more adequate framework for advancing full employment within a place-based integrated approach while articulating the microeconomic, mesoeconomic and macroeconomic levels and/or all governance levels. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion