scholarly journals The Long-Term Costs of Government Surveillance: Insights from Stasi Spying in East Germany

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Lichter ◽  
Max Löffler ◽  
Sebastian Siegloch
Keyword(s):  
Economic Performance ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Civic Capital ◽  
Government Surveillance

ABSTRACT We investigate the long-run effects of government surveillance on civic capital and economic performance, studying the case of the Stasi in East Germany. Exploiting regional variation in the number of spies and administrative features of the system, we combine a border discontinuity design with an instrumental variable strategy to estimate the long-term, post-reunification effect of government surveillance. We find that a higher spying density led to persistently lower levels of interpersonal and institutional trust in post-reunification Germany. We also find substantial and long-lasting economic effects of Stasi surveillance, resulting in lower income, higher exposure to unemployment, and lower self-employment.

scholarly journals Natural disasters as a development opportunity: a spatial economic resilience interpretation

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-249
Author(s):  
Alexandru Bănică ◽  
Karima Kourtit ◽  
Peter Nijkamp
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
Systematic Classification ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Spatial Systems

AbstractNatural disasters are usually regarded as damage factors causing high private and social costs. Notwithstanding the incontestable validity of this premise, natural disasters do not necessarily lead to a structural deprivation of the area affected. Recent studies have clearly shown that in the long run one may even observe positive socio-economic effects (‘blessings in disguise’).This paper investigates this challenging proposition by developing a risk-disaster-opportunity framework for a territorial system, and by analysing the socio-economic impacts of natural shocks from a resilience perspective. This is inter alia done by designing a typology of natural disasters, and by presenting a systematic classification of long-range impacts.An empirical test of the above proposition of positive recovery effects of natural disasters is carried out by using, in particular, long-term data from the worldwide EM-DAT database. The attention is then focussed on positive feedback loops in spatial systems that are affected by a natural perturbation. Various case studies (USA, China, Haiti, Chile, Japan) are undertaken in order to test the existence of long-term ‘blessings in disguise’ effects, using in particular the HDI-index. In various cases, such positive effects appear to exist, depending on the effectiveness of public management of natural disaster phenomena.

scholarly journals The long-run effects of religious persecution: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (33) ◽  
pp. e2022881118
Author(s):  
Mauricio Drelichman ◽  
Jordi Vidal-Robert ◽  
Hans-Joachim Voth
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
Spanish Inquisition ◽  
Long Run ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Indicators

Religious persecution is common in many countries around the globe. There is little evidence on its long-term effects. We collect data from all across Spain, using information from more than 67,000 trials held by the Spanish Inquisition between 1480 and 1820. This comprehensive database allows us to demonstrate that municipalities of Spain with a history of a stronger inquisitorial presence show lower economic performance, educational attainment, and trust today. The effects persist after controlling for historical indicators of religiosity and wealth, ruling out potential selection bias.

scholarly journals Modeling the Transport Infrastructure-Growth Nexus in the United States

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junwook Chi ◽  
Jungho Baek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Infrastructure Investment ◽  
Public Infrastructure ◽  
Economic Output ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Impact

The rising government funding in transport infrastructure has sparked political and academic debates on the economic impacts of transport infrastructure investment in the United States. Although numerous empirical studies have examined the transport infrastructure-growth nexus, existing literature has mixed conclusions of the economic effects of expanding transport infrastructure. The main objective of this paper is to assess the short- and long-run impacts of transport and non-transport public infrastructure on economic growth to provide an implication of the effectiveness of these fiscal policy tools in the short- and long-term. For this purpose, we employ a modern autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to explore the dynamic relationships among transport infrastructure, non-transport public infrastructure, private capital, labor hours, GDP, and exports. In the long run, we find that a bidirectional relationship exists between transport infrastructure and GDP, suggesting that expanding transport infrastructure improves aggregated economic output, and enhanced economic output increases public investment in transport infrastructure. However, the magnitude of the impact of transport infrastructure on GDP is smaller than that of non-transport public infrastructure, implying that non-transport infrastructure investment is a more effective long-term fiscal stimulus than expanding transport infrastructure.

Tax Policy Reform and Economic Performance in New Zealand

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-108
Author(s):  
Iris Claus
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Productive Government Spending ◽  
Income Taxpayers

New Zealand's tax system is relatively simple and transparent by international standards. But there may still be scope for reducing the costs of taxation. This paper develops a stylized model for New Zealand to evaluate the effects of reducing higher-income tax rates. The results suggest that a reduction in higher-income tax rates would improve New Zealand's long-run economic performance if it were financed by a decline in (non-productive) government spending and/or increases in revenue from other less distortional taxes. Despite the reductions in the higher-income tax rates, higher-income taxpayers would continue to pay a larger proportion of the tax burden than lower-income taxpayers.

Infrastructure mortgage in Russia: Opportunities and prospects

2019 ◽  
pp. 114-133
Author(s):  
G. I. Idrisov ◽  
Y. Yu. Ponomarev
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Expert Assessment ◽  
Inflation Expectations ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Gdp Growth Rate ◽  
Negative Effect

The article shows that depending on the goals pursued by the federal government and the available interbudgetary tools a different design of infrastructure mortgage is preferable. Three variants of such mortgage in Russia are proposed, each of which is better suited for certain types of projects and uses different forms of subsidies. According to our expert assessment the active use of infrastructure mortgage in Russia can increase the average annual GDP growth rate by 0.5 p. p. on the horizon of 5—7 years. In the long run the growth of infrastructure financing through the use of infrastructure mortgage could increase long-term economic growth by 0.9 p. p., which in 20—30 years can add 20—30% of GDP to the economy. However, the change in the structure of budget expenditures in the absence of an increase in the budget deficit and public debt will cause no direct impact on monetary policy. The increase in the deficit and the build-up of public debt will have a negative effect on inflation expectations, which will require monetary tightening for a longer time to stabilize them.

Turkish Muslims in a German city: Entrepreneurial and residential self-determination

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sarah Hackett
Keyword(s):  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
German City ◽  
Post War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Term Objective

Drawing upon a collection of oral history interviews, this paper offers an insight into entrepreneurial and residential patterns and behaviour amongst Turkish Muslims in the German city of Bremen. The academic literature has traditionally argued that Turkish migrants in Germany have been pushed into self-employment, low-quality housing and segregated neighbourhoods as a result of discrimination, and poor employment and housing opportunities. Yet the interviews reveal the extent to which Bremen’s Turkish Muslims’ performances and experiences have overwhelmingly been the consequences of personal choices and ambitions. For many of the city’s Turkish Muslim entrepreneurs, self-employment had been a long-term objective, and they have succeeded in establishing and running their businesses in the manner they choose with regards to location and clientele, for example. Similarly, interviewees stressed the way in which they were able to shape their housing experiences by opting which districts of the city to live in and by purchasing property. On the whole, they perceive their entrepreneurial and residential practices as both consequences and mediums of success, integration and a loyalty to the city of Bremen. The findings are contextualised within the wider debate regarding the long-term legacy of Germany’s post-war guest-worker system and its position as a “country of immigration”.

PENGARUH INFRASTRUKTUR SECARA SPASIAL TERHADAP KONVERGENSI PERTUMBUHAN EKONOMI DI INDONESIA

INFO ARTHA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Anisa Fahmi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Regional Economics ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Road Infrastructure ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Neoclassical Growth Theory

Motivated by inter-regional disparities condition that occurs persistently, this study examines the Indonesian economy in the long run in order to know whether it tends to converge or diverge. This convergence is based on the Solow Neoclassical growth theory assuming the existence of diminishing returns to capital so that when the developed countries reach steady state conditions, developing countries will continuously grow up to 'catch-up' with developed countries. Based on regional economics perspective, each region can not be treated as a stand-alone unit,therefore, this study also focuses on the influence of spatial dependency and infrastructure. Economical and political situations of a region will influence policy in that region which will also have an impact to the neighboring regions. The estimation results of spatial cross-regressive model using fixed effect method consistently confirmed that the Indonesian economy in the long term will likely converge with a speed of 8.08 percent per year. Other findings are road infrastructure has a positive effect on economic growth and investment and road infrastructure are spatially showed a positive effect on economic growth. In other words, the investment and infrastructure of a region does not only affect the economic growth of that region but also to the economy of the contiguous regions. 

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