The 90% public debt threshold: the rise and fall of a stylised fact

This paper puts the original Reinhart-Rogoff dataset, made public by Herndon et al. (2013), to a formal econometric test to pin down debt thresholds endogenously. We show that the nonlinear relation from debt to growth is not very robust.

Fiscal federalism and its impact on economic activity, public investment and the performance of educational systems

Intergovernmental fiscal frameworks usually reflect fundamental societal choices and history and are not foremost geared towards achieving economic policy objectives. Yet, like most institutional arrangements, fiscal relations affect the behaviour of firms, households and governments and thereby economic activity.

Economics Department Policy Notes

These series of Policy Notes and Policy Papers are designed to make available, to a wider readership, selected studies which the Department has prepared for use within OECD.

Restoring Japan’s fiscal sustainability

With gross government debt surpassing 200% of GDP, Japan’s fiscal situation is in uncharted territory. In addition to robust nominal GDP growth, correcting two decades of budget deficits requires a large and sustained fiscal consolidation based on a detailed and credible multi-year plan that includes measures to control spending and raise revenue.

Related Documents

• Economic Survey of Japan 2013

Making the tax system less distortive in Switzerland

The tax burden in Switzerland is low in international comparison, largely reflecting the substantial non-tax compulsory contributions towards the health and pension systems which are managed by private institutions. Taxation of personal income and labour earnings is relatively high, whereas the taxation of consumption is low.

Related Documents

• Economic Survey of Switzerland 2011

The efficiency and equity of the tax and transfer system in France

Taxes and cash transfers reduce income inequality more in France than elsewhere in the OECD, because of the large size of the flows involved. But the system is complex overall. Its effectiveness could be enhanced in many ways, for example so as to achieve the same amount of redistribution at lower cost.

Related Documents

• Economic Survey of France 2013

Measuring Fiscal Decentralisation, Concepts and Policies

This book deals with two issues. The first concerns the various measurement of fiscal decentralization in general and their usefulness for policy analysis. The second and more specific issue concerns the taxonomy of intergovernmental grants and the limits of the current classifications.

Improving the fiscal framework to enhance growth in an era of fiscal consolidation in Slovakia

The challenge for fiscal policy in Slovakia is to achieve fiscal consolidation in a way which supports the fragile recovery and protects spending on areas which are important for re-embarking on a trajectory of high trend growth and underpinning a catch-up in living standards.

Related Documents

• Economic Survey of the Slovak Republic 2012

Also Available

Long-term growth scenarios

This paper presents the results from a new model for projecting growth of OECD and major non-OECD economies over the next 50 years as well as imbalances that arise.

Also Available

The equity implications of fiscal consolidation

In several OECD countries, ongoing fiscal consolidation might have a negative impact on the static income distribution. However, this conclusion should be treated only as an approximate first step in the analysis.