“Mother, can I trust the government?” Stable democracies are more likely to enjoy sustained financial development

What do countries need for sustainable financial development? This column argues that protection of property rights is necessary but not sufficient. Using a sample of 160 countries from 1960 to 2005, it finds that checks and balances on power and political stability are the vital ingredients. Read the complete article on EUVOX here.

Peter Praet: Lack of Uniform Resolution Rules a Major Concern

This was posted on the Real Times Economics blog of the WSJ:

Peter Praet, the executive director of National Bank of Belgium and a top European bank regulator, said a major flaw of international banking oversight is that there is not a uniform set of rules to address the dissolution of failing banks that operate in more than one country.

He said he told international regulators at a meeting in Singapore a few days ago that “the poorer your crisis resolution framework, the higher your capital” requirements should be. In other words, banks that operate in countries that can’t handle the collapse of these banks should force the companies to hold much more of a cushion to protect against potential failure.

“It’s absolutely key that we push that through,” he said at a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago meeting on Friday.

He said some regulators were skittish about pushing too aggressively because of the fragile state of many countries’ financial markets. He said these officials were “a bit scared of going too fast in those things.”

“The situation of public finance will probably force you to be much more courageous,” he said.

A Scandinavian Model

Sweden votes for tax cuts, privatization and deregulation. Read the complete article in the WSJ here.

Universitaire mislukking voorspelbaar

De helft van de jongeren die deze week aan het eerste jaar universiteit beginnen, zal zakken. Hun slaagkansen zijn voorspelbaar en variëren naargelang de vooropleiding: 12 procent voor beroepsonderwijs tot 75 procent voor Grieks-Wiskunde. Er zijn ook flinke verschillen naargelang het net waaruit ze komen: het gemeenschapsnet geeft een slaagcijfer van 34 procent, het katholieke net een ruime 50 procent, berekenden de economen Koen Declercq en Frank Verboven van Vives (KULeuven). Lees het volledige artikel in De Standaard hier.

Indicators on education expenditure for 2007

In 2007 in the EU, expenditure per student in educational institutions varied between 5 171 EUR PPS in primary education and 9 102 EUR PPS in tertiary education. Staff represented 77 % of public educational institutions current expenditure in 2007. Current expenditure accounted for 92 % of the total, while capital expenditure represented 8 %. Public expenditure on education ranged from 3.1 % to 7.8 % of the GDP and private funds represented 13.5 % of the income of educational institutions.

Read this Eurostat publication here.

Kwalitatieve veranderingen in de banenstructuur in Vlaanderen en België

Volledige werkgelegenheid is altijd een van de belangrijkste doelen van economisch beleid geweest, maar sinds de jaren tachtig is men er zich van bewust geworden dat niet alleen het aantal maar ook de kwaliteit van banen aandacht verdient.

Lees dit Steunpunt WSE rapport hier.

Energies renouvelables: la Belgique a enfin un plan

Notre pays s'engage à réaliser l'objectif des 13 pc "au moyen de sa production intérieure", mais "le gouvernement flamand, dit le texte, propose de réaliser l'objectif des 13 pc autant que possible au moyen de sa production interne".

Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.