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Fiscal Pressures (fiscal + pressure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%
Humanities and Social Sciences	33%

Selected Abstracts

Population Ageing, Fiscal Pressure and Tax Smoothing: A CGE Application to Australia,

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2006
Ross Guest
Abstract This paper analyses the fiscal pressure from population ageing using an intertemporal CGE model, applied to Australia, and compares the results with those of a recent government-commissioned study. The latter study uses an alternative modelling approach based on extrapolation rather than optimising behaviour of consumers and firms. The deadweight losses from the fiscal pressure caused by population ageing are equivalent to an annual loss of consumption of $260 per person per year in 2003 dollars in the balanced-budget scenario. A feasible degree of tax smoothing would reduce this welfare loss by an equivalent of $70 per person per year. Unlike the extrapolation-based model, the CGE approach takes account of feedback effects of ageing-induced tax increases on consumption and labour supply, which in turn impact on the ultimate magnitude of fiscal pressure and therefore tax increases. However, a counterfactual simulation suggests that the difference in terms of deadweight losses between the two modelling approaches is modest, at about $30 per person per year. [source]

The Globalization of Taxation?

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2003
Electronic Commerce, the Transformation of the State
The anticipated growth of new communications technologies, including the Internet and other digital networks, will make it increasingly difficult for states to tax global commerce effectively. Greater harmonization and coordination of national tax policies will likely be required in the coming years in order to address this problem. Given that the history of the state is inseparable from the history of taxation, this "globalization of taxation" could have far-reaching political implications. The modern state itself emerged out of a fiscal crisis of medieval European feudalism, which by the 14th and 15th centuries was increasingly incapable of raising sufficient revenues to support the mounting expenses of warfare. If new developments in the technology of commerce are now undermining the efficiency of the state as an autonomous taxing entity, fiscal pressures may produce a similar shift in de facto political authority away from the state and toward whatever international mechanisms are created to expedite the taxation of these new forms of commerce. [source]

Institutional competitiveness, social investment, and welfare regimes

REGULATION & GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2007
Paul Bernard
Abstract Are the rather generous welfare regimes found in most European countries sustainable; that is, are they competitive in a globalizing economy? Or will they, on the contrary, be crowded out by the more austere and less expensive regimes generally found in liberal Anglo-Saxon countries? We first discuss this issue conceptually, focusing on the notions of institutional competitiveness, social investment, and short-term and long-term productivity. We then briefly present the results of an empirical study of 50 social indicators of policies and outcomes in 20 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries during the early 2000s. We conclude that welfare regimes have not been forced to converge through a "race to the bottom." There remain three distinct ways to face the "trilemma" of job growth, income inequality, and fiscal restraint: Nordic countries achieve high labor market participation through high social investment; Anglo-Saxon countries attain the same objective through minimal public intervention; while Continental European countries experience fiscal pressures because their social protection schemes are not promoting participation to the same extent. [source]

Fiscal policy and structural reforms in transition economies

THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSITION, Issue 1 2001
An empirical analysis
This paper provides an empirical examination of the relationship between fiscal balance and structural reforms using panel data from 25 transition economies. The results indicate that privatization and restructuring, via unemployment, affect the fiscal balance negatively. This finding provides support for ideas in theoretical transition economics that maintain that fiscal pressures are most severe in fast-reforming countries. In contrast, price liberalization has a robust positive impact on fiscal performance. In addition, the results differ somewhat over different countries and transition time. [source]

State Responses to New Flexibility in Medicaid

THE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008
TERESA A. COUGHLIN
Context: States have long lobbied to be given more flexibility in designing their Medicaid programs, the nation's health insurance program for the low-income, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities. The Bush administration and the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 have put in place policies to make it easier to grant states this flexibility. Methods: This article explores trends in states' Medicaid flexibility and discusses some of the implications for the program and its beneficiaries. The article uses government databases to identify the policy changes that have been implemented through waivers and state plan amendments. Findings: Since 2001, more than half the states have changed their Medicaid programs, through either Medicaid waivers or provisions in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. These changes are in benefit flexibility, cost sharing, enrollment expansions and caps, privatization, and program financing. Conclusions: With a few important exceptions, these changes have been fairly circumscribed, but despite their expressed interest, states have not yet fully used this flexibility for their Medicaid programs. However, states may exercise this newly available flexibility if, for example, the nation's health care system is not reformed or an economic downturn creates fiscal pressures on states that must be addressed. If this happens, the policies implemented during the Bush administration could lead to profound changes in Medicaid and could be carried out relatively easily. [source]