Showing papers by "Christoph A. Schaltegger published in 2005"
TL;DR: In many countries, thinking about a new tax amnesty is currently in vogue as discussed by the authors, but international experience shows that the financial success of such a tax amnesty was not guaranteed, in part because of international experience.
Abstract: In many countries, thinking about a (new) tax amnesty is currently in vogue. However, international experience shows that the financial success of such a tax amnesty is not guaranteed, in part beca...
85 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provided empirical evidence that trustworthiness of a government and trust in a government is crucial for fiscal performance using data for the full sample of Swiss cantons over the 1981-2001 period.
Abstract: Citizens are willing to abandon their short-term financial interest in free-riding considerably, if governments act in their interest, if procedures of the public decisions-making process are felt to be fair and if other fellow-citizens have to contribute also an adequate share to the community. In such a situation trustworthiness of a government and trust in a government is high. This paper provides empirical evidence that trust is crucial for fiscal performance using data for the full sample of Swiss cantons over the 1981-2001 period. In cantons with high levels of trust, the level of indebtedness is significantly lower. Trust supports fiscal discipline. In order to get a useful approximation for mutual trust among citizens and between citizens and their representatives, we use information from direct voter participation on political issues (initiatives and public referenda) held in Swiss state (cantonal) governments. Electoral support of government proposals reveals an important aspect of trust in a real world setting. Hence, our trust variable measures the behavior at the ballots thereby reducing possible subjective biases derived from surveys and questionnaires.
80 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide evidence that the fiscal referendum reduces the reliance of states on matching grants received from the central government and thus the possibility of interest groups and state bureaucrats to obtain more grants.
Abstract: Recent empirical literature has shown that the determination of intergovernmental grants is highly influenced by the political bargaining power of the recipient states. In these models federal politicians are assumed to buy the support of state voters, state politicians and state interest groups by providing grants. In this paper we provide evidence that the fiscal referendum reduces the reliance of states on matching grants received from the central government and thus the possibility of interest groups and state bureaucrats to obtain more grants. If referendums are available, voters serve as a hard budget constraint.
40 citations
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TL;DR: Tax morale has received a growing attention in academics as well as in public life as discussed by the authors, and the relevance of tax morale for fiscal policy cannot be neglected as tax morale can help to explain the level of tax compliance or tax evasion.
Abstract: ax morale has received a growing attention in academics as well as in public life. The relevance of tax morale for fiscal policy cannot be neglected as tax morale can help to explain the level of tax compliance or tax evasion. This paper gives an overview of tax morale with a special focus on Switzerland. We highlight the magnitude and the de-terminants of tax morale that have been isolated so far and discuss directions for future research in this area. In particular, we concentrate on fiscal policy implications.
39 citations
01 Jan 2005
15 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse how audit courts and local autonomy affect political discussion, controlling in a multivariate analysis for a broad variety of potential factors focusing on Switzerland, due to its variety of audit court competences and its strong decentralised structure.
Abstract: The intention of this paper is to analyse how audit courts and local autonomy affect political discussion, controlling in a multivariate analysis for a broad variety of potential factors focusing on Switzerland, due to its variety of audit court competences and its strong decentralised structure. With data from the World Values Survey 1995-1997 (Swiss data 1996) evidence has been found that a higher audit court competence and a lower level of centralization is correlated with a higher level of political discussion. Thus, the results in Switzerland suggest that such institutions help improve citizens’ willingness to acquire information costs and discuss political matters.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between public expenditure and economic growth within a rich country using the full sample of state and local governments from Switzerland over the 1981-2001 period.
Abstract: There is a vast empirical literature investigating the relationship between government size and economic growth. But the empirical evidence of growth effects of public expenditure using cross-country regressions is still inconclusive. According to a number of authors this is not surprising since the negative relationship only applies for rich countries with a large public sector. Restricting their analysis on rich countries only they can show the predicted negative impact. Naturally, a selection of a sub-sample of rich countries is always somewhat arbitrary. Another possibility is to concentrate on governments within a rich country. However, only few studies investigate the effect of state and local spending on economic growth. This paper concentrates on the relationship between public expenditure and economic growth within a rich country using the full sample of state and local governments from Switzerland over the 1981-2001 period. The general finding is a fairly robust negative relationship between government size and economic growth. However, in contrast to public spending from operating budgets there is no significant impact on economic growth by expenditure from capital budgets.
4 citations
TL;DR: The Schweiz is a country with ein eigentumliches wirtschaftliches Leistungsprofil. as discussed by the authors, i.e., ein rekordniedriges Wirtschutzswachstum auf.
Abstract: Die Schweiz hat ein eigentumliches wirtschaftliches Leistungsprofil. Im Vergleich mit anderen etablierten Demokratien der OECD-Landergruppe weist sie seit mehr als einem Vierteljahrhundert ein rekordniedriges Wirtschaftswachstum auf. In der Folge rutschte sie von einer fruheren Spitzenposition auf der Rangliste des Inlandsprodukts pro Kopf (in Kaufkraftparitaten) im Jahr 2003 auf den 5. Platz ab. Mit 32‘500 USD p.c. liegt sie hinter Irland, Norwegen, den Vereinigten Staaten und Luxemburg. Der Abstand zu den acht nachfolgenden Landern ist gering. Belgien, Island, das Vereinigte Konigreich, Australien, Niederlande, Kanada, Oesterreich und Danemark haben ein kaufkraftbereinigtes Inlandsprodukt p.c. das mindestens 90% des schweizerischen Wertes betragt. Haufig wird darauf hingewiesen, diese Zahlen zeichneten das Bild zu dunkel (siehe jungst: Kohli 2005; Rich 2005). Zum einen wurden die Verbesserungen der Handelsbedingungen (terms of trade) nicht sachlich richtig – als Vorteile technologischen Fortschritts – statistisch bei der Berechnung der Wachstumsindices erfasst. Und viel besser sehe es ohnehin aus, wenn man sich nicht auf das Bruttoinlandsprodukt (also im Wesentlichen das im Land entstandene Einkommen) stutze, sondern auf das Bruttosozialprodukt (Bruttonationaleinkommen), also
2 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provided empirical evidence that trustworthiness of a government and trust in a government is crucial for fiscal performance using data for the full sample of Swiss cantons over the 1981-2001 period.
Abstract: Citizens are willing to abandon their short-term financial interest in free-riding considerably, if governments act in their interest, if procedures of the public decisions-making process are felt to be fair and if other fellow-citizens have to contribute also an adequate share to the community. In such a situation trustworthiness of a government and trust in a government is high. This paper provides empirical evidence that trust is crucial for fiscal performance using data for the full sample of Swiss cantons over the 1981-2001 period. In cantons with high levels of trust, the level of indebtedness is significantly lower. Trust supports fiscal discipline. In order to get a useful approximation for mutual trust among citizens and between citizens and their representatives, we use information from direct voter participation on political issues (initiatives and public referenda) held in Swiss state (cantonal) governments. Electoral support of government proposals reveals an important aspect of trust in a real world setting. Hence, our trust variable measures the behavior at the ballots thereby reducing possible subjective biases derived from surveys and questionnaires.
2 citations