The IREF Working Paper Series publishes original research relevant to ongoing economic policy debates. We are accepting submissions throughout the year. For more information see our open call for papers.
WP 2015-02. Executive Summary Western central banks have been pursuing unconventional monetary since at least 2008. Is there a way of ending them? The authors identify the winners and losers…
WP 2015-01. Executive Summary Does progressive taxation on corporate income discourage entrepreneurship? At first glance, the answer seems in the positive, since as tax pressure on business increases, business activities…
WP 2014-01. Executive Summary Bailouts have created a problem of moral hazard. This has exacerbated, rather than relaxed, the decline in integrity in banking that is the subject of this…
WP 2013-07. Executive Summary The traditional argument in favour of decentralization focuses on tax competition and on the quality of public expenditure. In a sentence, it is argued that a…
WP 2013-06. Executive Summary There is a vast literature that documents the benefit of training, both for the employee (whose productivity and wage rate increase) and for the employer (who…
WP 2013-05. Executive Summary Although it is generally agreed that government size has a negative impact on economic growth, it is also manifest that the intensity of this causal…
WP 2013-04. Executive Summary The critical situation of most state-pension schemes plays a key role in explaining the public-finance crises that characterize many West-European countries. Although most observers refrain from…
WP 2013-03. Executive Summary International restructurings by globally acting enterprises have become a common occurrence in the wake of accelerating globalization and have led to increasing global relocations of economic…
WP2013-01. Executive Summary This working paper explores the notion of personal responsibility by considering people’s attitude towards redistribution. In particular, the authors run a controlled experiment by offering a representative…
WP 2013-02. Executive Summary There is no doubt that the judiciary plays a crucial role in economic performance. Laws can be more or less friendly towards entrepreneurship, production and investment,…
