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 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,…
WP 2012-03. Executive Summary The European crisis is not behind us and easy solutions do not readily present themselves. Some of the causes of the crisis may be regarded as…
WP 2012-02. Executive Summary The quality of the institutional environment is a crucial issue in understanding the effective outcome of fiscal decentralization initiatives. However, there has been so far very…
WP 2012-01. Executive Summary This paper analyses intergovernmental transfers in France and Italy to assess how soft budget spending behaviors may result from slacks in institutional constraints or from phenomena…
WP 2011-01. Executive Summary Numerous, and often conflicting, principles guide the design of a tax structure. One of those principles is that taxation should promote growth, or at least should…
Do fiscal decisions of incumbent mayors affect their probability of being re-elected? Do they consider the fiscal decisions of the neighboring mayors when they face an election? And do these…
The global use of modern biofuels for transport is relatively recent and underwent rapid growth since the turn of this century. However, its performances in economic, energetic and environmental terms have recently been seriously questioned. Large-scale production of this renewable energy seems to have more inconveniences than advantages. Still, huge investments went to this sector so that any policy change away from this technological path will be costly.
