scholarly journals Public Preferences for Government Spending Priorities: Survey Evidence from Germany

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. e1-e37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Hayo ◽  
Florian Neumeier

Abstract Employing data from a representative survey conducted in Germany, this paper examines public preferences for the size and composition of government expenditure. We focus on public attitudes towards taxes, public debt incurrence and public spending in six different policy areas. Our findings suggest, first, that individual preferences for the use of additional tax money can be categorised as either capital-oriented expenditure or public debt reduction. Second, we find that fiscal preferences differ along various dimensions. Specifically, personal economic well-being, economic literacy, confidence in politicians, political ideology and time preference are significantly related to individual attitudes towards public spending, taxes and debt. The magnitude of the effects is particularly large for time preference, economic knowledge and party preference. Third, public preferences for public spending priorities are only marginally affected when considering a public budget constraint.

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey P.R. Wallace

AbstractDomestic approaches to compliance with international commitments often presume that international law has a distinct effect on the beliefs and preferences of national publics. Studies attempting to estimate the consequences of international law unfortunately face a wide range of empirical and methodological challenges. This article uses an experimental design embedded in two U.S. national surveys to offer direct systematic evidence of international law's effect on mass attitudes. To provide a relatively tough test for international law, the surveys examine public attitudes toward the use of torture, an issue in which national security concerns are often considered paramount. Contrary to the common contention of international law's inefficacy, I find that legal commitments have a discernible impact on public support for the use of torture. The effect of international law is also strongest in those contexts where pressures to resort to torture are at their highest. However, the effects of different dimensions in the level of international agreements' legalization are far from uniform. In contrast to the attention often devoted to binding rules, I find that the level of obligation seems to make little difference on public attitudes toward torture. Rather, the relative precision of the rules, along with the degree to which enforcement is delegated to third parties, plays a much greater role in shaping public preferences. Across both international law and legalization, an individual's political ideology also exerts a strong mediating effect, though in varying directions depending on the design of the agreement. The findings have implications for understanding the overall impact of international law on domestic actors, the importance of institutional design, and the role of political ideology on compliance with international agreements.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-48
Author(s):  
George Economides ◽  
Hyun Park ◽  
Apostolis Philippopoulos ◽  
Stelios Sakkas

We study the implications of changes in the mix of taxes, public spending, and public finance in the Eurozone. In so doing, we build a general equilibrium OLG model that naturally incorporates all the main categories of public spending and taxes. We focus on the medium- and long-run implications of permanent reforms in the actual policy mix. When we depart from 2008, the best way out of the recession would be an increase in public spending on education and health and in turn cuts in distorting taxes including social security contributions. When we depart from the year 2017, which features a higher inherited public debt, public debt consolidation becomes the superior reform to the extent that the focus is on the medium and long run.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (66) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
م.م أحمد حامد جمعة ◽  
◽  
د. كمال فيلد البصري

This study clarifies the analysis of the reality of the financial policy in the budget of Iraq 2019, and that analysis is evaluated by tracking the elements of the public budget from public expenditures and public revenues, and the study focuses on the size of the political impact on the path of public spending, as well as the analysis of public spending and revenues in various sectors and sections of the public budget. This study also shows the size of the risks resulting from the continuation of the financial deficit, as well as the risks of public debt according to the indicators of its sustainability analysis within the financial and economic indicators that express the risks of public debt. The study emphasized that public spending is still based on the political decision and does not achieve the principles and objectives of the economic budget that achieve the public benefit. The necessity requires efficient spending and fair distribution in order to avoid future public debt risks and their impact on future generations


Author(s):  
Ziggi Ivan Santini ◽  
Hannah Becher ◽  
Maja Bæksgaard Jørgensen ◽  
Michael Davidsen ◽  
Line Nielsen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Previous literature has examined the societal costs of mental illness, but few studies have estimated the costs associated with mental well-being. In this study, a prospective analysis was conducted on Danish data to determine 1) the association between mental well-being (measured in 2016) and government expenditure in 2017, specifially healthcare costs and sickness benefit transfers. Methods Data stem from a Danish population-based survey of 3,508 adults (aged 16 + years) in 2016, which was linked to Danish registry data. A validated scale (WEMWBS) was used for the assessment of mental well-being. Costs are expressed in USD PPP. A two-part model was applied to predict costs in 2017, adjusting for sociodemographics, health status (including psychiatric morbidity and health behaviour), as well as costs in the previous year (2016). Results Each point increase in mental well-being (measured in 2016) was associated with lower healthcare costs ($− 42.5, 95% CI = $− 78.7, $− 6.3) and lower costs in terms of sickness benefit transfers ($− 23.1, 95% CI = $− 41.9, $− 4.3) per person in 2017. Conclusions Estimated reductions in costs related to mental well-being add to what is already known about potential savings related to the prevention of mental illness. It does so by illustrating the savings that could be made by moving from lower to higher levels of mental well-being both within and beyond the clinical range. Our estimates pertain to costs associated with those health-related outcomes that were included in the study, but excluding other social and economic outcomes and benefits. They cover immediate cost estimates (costs generated the year following mental well-being measurement) and not those that could follow improved mental well-being over the longer term. They may therefore be considered conservative from a societal perspective. Population approaches to mental health promotion are necessary, not only to potentiate disease prevention strategies, but also to reduce costs related to lower levels of mental well-being in the non-mental illness population. Our results suggest that useful reductions in both health care resource use and costs, as well as in costs due to sick leave from the workplace, could be achieved from investment in mental well-being promotion within a year.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Biewen ◽  
Roland Happ ◽  
Susanne Schmidt ◽  
Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia

In this study we examine the determinants of and the relationship among economic knowledge, epistemological beliefs, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation over the course of undergraduate studies in a sample of students of business and economics at a university in Germany. We found economic knowledge increased over the course of studies, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation declined, and students became more skeptical in their epistemological beliefs about the objectivity of economic content being taught in their courses. The students’ level of economic knowledge was related to intrinsic motivation but unrelated to extrinsic motivation and epistemological beliefs. Furthermore, the students’ tendency to become more skeptical over the course of their studies was mitigated by high levels of extrinsic motivation. The use of internationally established assessments such as the Test of Economic Literacy, developed by the Council of Economics Education, enables implications for higher education business and economics programs at the international level to be drawn from our findings. 


1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gehendreswor Koirala

<p>Editorial board has pleasure to release this issue of <strong><em>Economic Literature</em></strong>, an annual Journal of Department of Economics, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara (Volume XII, December 2014). Through the publication of this journal. We have been making efforts to promote the general advancement of economic knowledge, information and techniques of analysis since 1981. Our aim is to continue this tradition by publishing highly academic and policy oriented research papers and to provide platforms for enthusiastic scholars who like to publish their scholarly and analytical paper based on fresh research on the issues of interest around the discipline of economics. This issue incorporates analytical articles of contemporary issues of Nepalese economy including deposit mobilization in a commercial bank, government expenditure, multi-dimensional poverty in rural area, impact of remittance, index of human development, financial institution and management practices of graduates.</p><p>We strongly believe that University Departments should engage in research and disseminate the ideas and findings obtained through research to the scientific community for the enlightenment of knowledge, not just to deliver the existing knowledge in class rooms. We have firmly believed that it will not only enrich field of knowledge but also inspire the fresh graduates towards the culture of scientific research and thoughtful writings. If this publication contributed something to strengthen the culture, we will feel great satisfaction. It is, however, up to the reader to evaluate our endeavour.</p><p>It was not possible to offer this volume to the esteemed readers without the contributions of the authors of articles included in this issue. We, therefore, reverentially acknowledge the authors who have contributed to the journal. We would also like to thank to those who have assisted us by encouraging the course of this publication. Special thanks go to the campus administration for encouragement and support in various ways. The editorial board welcomes all the noble thoughts, constructive comments and suggestions.</p><p>Economic Literature Vol.12 2014</p>


UVserva ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
León Felipe Beltrán Guerra ◽  
Jorge Luis Arellanez Hernández ◽  
Enrique Romero Pedraza

El gasto público en México se orienta a crear condiciones de desarrollo humano, salud y bienestar social por parte del Estado a través de su estructura federal. Se busca identificar cuál es el comportamiento de los indicadores de crecimiento y desarrollo de las entidades federativas en México en el periodo comprendido de 2005 a 2010. Con el análisis estadístico, se concluye que la relación entre el gasto público, destinado a rubros de salud, educación, desarrollo de infraestructura social, tiene una baja correlación con los índices de desarrollo en el país. Las variaciones no son significativas pero si las diferencias entre entidades federativas. El análisis de los indicadores mencionados, pretende mostrar que el gasto público no impacta claramente en las condiciones de salud, desarrollo y bienestar social de los mexicanos, elevando su calidad de vida.Palabras clave: Gasto público; Indice de Desarrollo Humano; bienestar psicológico; calidad de vida; condiciones de vida AbstractPublic spending in Mexico aims to create conditions of human development, heal­th and social well-being by the State through its federal structure. Our target is to identify what is the behavior of the indicators of grow­th and development in Mexico in the period of 2005-2010. After the statistical analysis, it is concluded that the relationship between pu­blic spending aimed at areas of health, educa­tion, social infrastructure development, has a low correlation with development index in the country. The variations in this index are not significant in the years analysed, but the diffe­rences between states does. The proposal aims at the public spending for being reflected sig­nificantly in the conditions of health, develop­ment and welbeing of Mexican people.Keywords: Public expenditure; Human develo­pment Index; Psychological well-being; Quali­ty of life; Life conditions 


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-161
Author(s):  
Amir Kia

This paper analyses the direct impact of fiscal variables on private investment. The current literature ignores one or more fiscal variables and, in many cases, the foreign financing of debt. In this paper, an aggregate investment function for an economy in which firms incur adjustment costs in their investment process is developed. The developed model incorporates the direct impact of government expenditure, public debt and investment, deficits and foreign-financed debt on private investment. The model is tested on US data. It is found that public investment does not have any impact on private investment, but government expenditure, deficit, debt and foreign-financed debt crowd out private investment over the long run. However, deficit crowds in the private investment over the short run.


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