Labour market flexibilization and income distribution in Europe

This paper analyses the role played by the flexibilization of labour markets on functional income distribution. Specifically, we analyse whether employment protection legislation affects the evolution of labour income share, measured by the size of compensation of employees as a percentage of GDP, the sum of wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP and the size of the adjusted wage share, in twenty European economies. Our study?s results show that the evolution of labour income share is explained by the economic growth, the growth of employment and unemployment rates, and the growth of real wages. Regarding the role played by the flexibility of the labour market, and specifically of the employment protection legislation, only employment protection for temporary workers has a significant impact on the evolution of labour shares. Our results show that stricter provisions on the use of fixed-term and temporary agency contracts have a positive impact on the growth of labour shares.

The efficiency of emerging markets: Evidence from nonlinear panel unit tests

In this study, we investigate market efficiency considering nonlinearities by testing the weak-form market efficiency of the stock markets of Brazil, China, Russia, Turkey, and South Africa using recently proposed nonlinear panel unit root tests. The stock markets of these emerging countries are deliberately selected for their market capitalization to form a homogenous panel. The results of nonlinear models indicate that the stock market indexes are stationary and weak-form inefficient. This finding contributes to the contradictory results of the prior research using linear and nonlinear models about the efficiency of emerging stock markets in favor of nonlinear ones. Furthermore, we propose that studies using financial variables consider such nonlinearity in order to achieve more accuracy in findings related to such studies.

Shocks, financial constraints and households’ consumption amid the great recession

Overall, there is now considerable evidence that financial constraints are at the root of the lack of consumption smoothing during the Great Recession. We push this evidence forward and show that in the presence of credit constraints, a job loss leads to larger drops in households? consumption. We build a set of testable hypotheses from our theoretical model and employ microdata taken from the second round of the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS II) (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2010). We specifically assess the role of financial constraints in explaining households? consumption coping strategies after the crisis shocks. Economic hardship is more likely to be observed if households experience difficulties in meeting outstanding debt obligations or in obtaining new credit lines because of financial constraints. The impact of job and wage shocks on households? consumption is much attenuated, by around a half, when we control for sample selection bias in accessing the formal credit markets. In the context of increasing impoverishment across Europe, the paper shows that a careful analysis of the main determinants of households? economic and financial hardship is crucial to formulate targeted measures at the regional and local level.

Erratum to: Shocks, financial constraints and households’ consumption amid the great recession

After publication of the original article, it came to the authors? attention that during the editing process a mathematical operator is missing in the text on pages 5 and 12. <br><br><font color="red"><b> Link to the corrected article <u><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/PAN2101001A">10.2298/PAN2101001A</a></b></u>

Tax reforms and income inequality in former Yugoslav countries: Escaping the avant-garde neoliberalism in the income tax policy

After the breakup of former Yugoslavia Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia followed different income tax reform trajectories that could explain currently different levels of income inequality in these countries. Our paper analyzes redistributive effects of introducing progressive tax systems, like the ones currently implemented in Slovenia and Croatia, in the Serbian context. Using microsimulation modeling and Survey on Income and Living Conditions data for 2017 our results suggest that implementation of both Croatian and Slovenian tax system would yield lower levels of income inequality and poverty if applied in Serbia. Slovenian system achieves larger decrease in inequality due to higher tax burden on the top incomes and brings significant increase in tax revenues. Croatian tax schedule achieves stronger decrease in poverty as more generous personal allowance exempt higher portions of low incomes from labour taxes.

Economic growth, regional convergence, human capital, research and development, turkey

This study analyzes convergence among regions of Turkey from an endogenous growth perspective. The results show that human capital, which is represented with R&D personnel, has a negative impact on economic growth in the regions based on its percentage in total employment. Moreover, we find that there is an estimated U-shaped relationship, which implies that if the percentage of R&D personnel in total employment increases after a certain level, the effect has a tendency of turning positive; the west region is especially closer to having a positive effect. However, regarding convergence, the relatively high-income west is closer to experiencing the positive effect of R&D personnel. Moreover, due to the relatively low percentage of R&D personnel in the east region, the economic growth of the east region is more negatively affected by R&D personnel. Therefore, using a strategy that is based on increasing the percentage of R&D personnel cannot help the east region to close the differences in income.

Keynes: The second coming?

This article outlines principles of a modernised macroeconomic framework, drawing on John Maynard Keynes. It explores the historical context in which Keynes? economic theory arose, and the history of its application and subsequent replacement by neoclassical economics. The article argues that any updated Keynesian programme must address three new problems: globalization, wealth inequality and climate change. It sketches out the ways in which these might be addressed.

Does innovation co-move with FDI? Evidence from OECD countries

In this study, the panel co-integration test combined with structural breaks was used to explore the long-term co-movement between FDI and patent and trademark applications? in accordance with 33 OECD countries from 1999 to 2018. The robust results demonstrate that both innovation variables including patent and trademark comove with FDI in the OECD sample. Furthermore, this long-term co-movement of FDI and innovation experiences some structural breaks during the period 2003-2010. Finally, there is a long-term co-movement between FDI inflows and innovation activity in OECD countries.

The moderating effect of social capital on fiscal policy responses to COVID-19: Cross-country evidence

This study suggests that an adequate level of social capital with a robust health profile might be associated with positive policy outcomes in combating COVID-19. We investigate the effect of interaction between fiscal policy responses and social capital on the spreading of the pandemic, by considering the country health profile, demographic and economic factors, in a cross-section of 94 countries. Firstly, the results of the analysis indicate the moderating effect of social capital on keeping the pandemic under control through fiscal policy measures. In particular, strong bilateral and family ties as well as better coordination and cooperation at the community level can facilitate the goal of fiscal policy measures. The results also reveal that the declining effect of fiscal policy on the pandemic mostly arises from the relatively high social capital levels, while it loses its effectiveness at low levels. Secondly, the findings emphasize the role of behavioural risk factors, care systems and preventative interventions as prominent determinants of surviving in pandemic. Thirdly, we conclude that taking specific measures for identified vulnerable and high-risk groups is quite important in overcoming the disease.

The Buchanan-Wagner hypothesis: Revisiting the theory with new empirics for a spendthrift democracy

This study revisits the Buchanan-Wagner hypothesis in reference to the deficit-spending dynamics of Turkey in the period 1924 to 2008, during which the government was expanding along with the developing national economy and democracy. The empirical analysis of the hypothesis is based on the autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration, which is not only quite new in the literature on the Buchanan-Wagner hypothesis but also superior to other single-equation cointegration approaches. The prevailing empirics for the Buchanan-Wagner hypothesis reveal deficiencies in several respects, as they ignore the mixed orders of integration in regressors, the endogeneity of regressors, and the encompassing dynamic structure in the short and long runs. Within this context, the findings of this study imply the validity of the hypothesis for Turkey, providing empirical evidence on the premise that budget deficits financed by nontax sources are the main driving force behind the continuously increasing public spending in Turkey. This evidence is argued to be a reflection of the fact that the perceived tax price of public goods and services decreases with debtfinanced budget deficits over time.