A detailed review of the education sector in Australia as in the data provided by the 2006 edition of the OECD's annual publication, 'Education at a Glance' is presented. While the data has shown that in almost all OECD countries educational attainment levels are on the rise, with countries showing impressive gains in university qualifications, it also reveals that a large of share of young people still do not complete secondary school, which remains a baseline for successful entry into the labour market.

/pdf/education-at-a-glance-m5vl7o68j5.pdf

Education at a Glance

Introduction: Explaining the EU Political System PART I: GOVERNMENT Executive Politics Legislative Politics Judicial Politics PART II: POLITICS Public Opinion Democracy, Parties and Elections Interest Representation PART III: POLICY-MAKING Regulation of the Single Market Expenditure Policies Economic and Monetary Union Citizen Freedom and Security Policies Foreign Policies Conclusions: Rethinking the European Union Appendix: Decision-making Procedures of the European Union Bibliography

The political system of European Union

This paper explains the key factors that determine the output multiplier of government purchases in New Keynesian models, through a series of simple examples that can be solved analytically. Sticky prices or wages allow for larger multipliers than in a neoclassical model, though the size of the multiplier depends crucially on the monetary policy response. A multiplier well in excess of 1 is possible when monetary policy is constrained by the zero lower bound, and in this case welfare increases if government purchases expand to partially flll the output gap that arises from the inability to lower interest rates.

/pdf/simple-analytics-of-the-government-expenditure-multiplier-vrcp7y84f8.pdf

Simple Analytics of the Government Expenditure Multiplier

It is high time we rediscovered the role of the financial cycle in macroeconomics In the environment that has prevailed for at least three decades now, it is not possible to understand business fluctuations and the corresponding analytical and policy challenges without understanding the financial cycle This calls for a rethink of modelling strategies and for significant adjustments to macroeconomic policies This essay highlights the stylised empirical features of the financial cycle, conjectures as to what it may take to model it satisfactorily, and considers its policy implications In the discussion of policy, the essay pays special attention to the bust phase, which is less well explored and raises much more controversial issues

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2195976_code456443.pdf?abstractid=2195976&mirid=1

The Financial Cycle and Macroeconomics: What Have We Learnt?

This paper investigates the relation between growth forecast errors and planned fiscal consolidation during the crisis. We find that, in advanced economies, stronger planned fiscal consolidation has been associated with lower growth than expected, with the relation being particularly strong, both statistically and economically, early in the crisis. A natural interpretation is that fiscal multipliers were substantially higher than implicitly assumed by forecasters. The weaker relation in more recent years may reflect in part learning by forecasters and in part smaller multipliers than in the early years of the crisis.

/pdf/growth-forecast-errors-and-fiscal-multipliers-3nwicszm2s.pdf

Growth Forecast Errors and Fiscal Multipliers

The German federal government’s fiscal consolidation package, announced in June, is designed to permanently reduce the federal deficit to a new target level. This article uses a three-region version of the European Commission’s QUEST model to gauge the impact of the package on Germany and the spillover to the rest of the euro area and the rest of the world.

/pdf/fiscal-consolidation-in-germany-4fvn9re3ch.pdf

Fiscal consolidation in Germany

A key dimension of fiscal policy during the financial crisis was massive government support for the banking system. The macroeconomic effects of that support have, so far, received little attention in the literature. This paper fills this gap, using a quantitative dynamic model with a banking sector. Our results suggest that state aid for banks may have a strong positive effect on real activity. Bank state aid multipliers are in the same range as conventional fiscal spending multipliers. Support for banks has a positive effect on investment, while a rise in government purchases crowds out investment.

Fiscal Policy in a Financial Crisis: Standard Policy vs. Bank Rescue Measures

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/207309/1/cesifo1_wp7918.pdf

The distributional impact of labour market reforms: A model-based assessment

This paper analysis the macroeconomic effects of government support measures to the financial sector using a microfounded structural model We simulate a crisis scenario in which the economy is hit by a severe financial shock and is subject to financial market imperfections We then look at three types of measures: purchases of toxic assets, bank recapitalisation measures and government loan guarantees State support to banks are found to help propping up the value of banks and reduce the risk premium that had emerged, so supporting corporate investment which had been particularly badly affected in the crisis

/pdf/evaluating-the-macroeconomic-effects-of-government-support-2ljq3amivo.pdf

Evaluating the macroeconomic effects of government support measures to financial institutions in the EU

This paper gives a model-based analysis of the potential macro-economic impact of European Union Structural and Cohesion Funds payments on the economies of the new Member States. The model used is a four-region DSGE model with human capital accumulation and endogenous technological change. The framework that we adopt is the Jones (2005) extension of the endogenous growth model, which uses a variety approach for modelling knowledge investment. The EU funds average around 1.5 percent of GDP and are used for investment in infrastructure, human capital and R&D. The model simulations show this can lead to significant gains in output, both in the short as well as in the long run.

Jan in 't Veld

Papers

Fiscal consolidation in Germany

Fiscal Policy in a Financial Crisis: Standard Policy vs. Bank Rescue Measures

The distributional impact of labour market reforms: A model-based assessment

Evaluating the macroeconomic effects of government support measures to financial institutions in the EU

A model-based assessment of the macroeconomic impact of EU structural funds on the new Member States