The term fiscal sustainability has many definitions, though it almost always refers to the fiscal policies of a government or the public sector. One concept of sustainability relates to solvency, the ability of the government to service its debt obligations in perpetuity without explicit default. Rarely does fiscal sustainability analysis reach the conclusion that a government is insolvent unle...

There is debate as to whether or not the Ebbinghaus illusion is driven by high-level cognitive size contrast mechanisms as opposed to low-level biphasic contour interactions. In this study, we examine the variability in effects that are shared between this illusion and a different illusion that cannot be explained logically by a size contrast account. This comparison revealed that nearly one qu...

Anomalous motion illusions represent a popular class of illusions and several studies have made an effort to explain their perception. However, understanding is still inconsistent. Age-related differences in susceptibility to illusory motion may contribute to further clarification of the underlying processing mechanisms. We investigated the effect of age on the perception of four different anom...

This paper introduces and analyzes a simply demonstrated tactile illusion. The tactile illusion described here is named the “chopstick” illusion since it can be easily demonstrated using a pair of wooden chopsticks. This illusion is demonstrated by moving one’s fingers up a broken-off wooden chopstick with the fingertips of the thumb and index finger. As two chopsticks are separated, an angled ...

The watercolor effect is a visual illusion that manifests itself as a combination of long-range color spreading and figure-ground organization. The current study uses behavioral and physiological measures to study the watercolor effect. We utilize a novel technique of measuring the cortical response of the illusion using the visual evoked potential (VEP). To this end, three experiments were don...

In economics, the investigation of association between government revenues (GR) and expenditures (GE) remains an essential discussion because its vital role in policy implication concerning Budget deficit. This paper aims to conduct a causal analysis these two fiscal variables (government revenue expenditure) using financial time-series data covering period from 1990 2019 Malaysia. The analyses...

This paper describes research that integrates Keynesian and Walrasian economics in a new way. The author develops a model in which high unemployment can persist and any unemployment rate can occur as an equilibrium. Equilibrium is selected by the self-fulfilling beliefs of asset market participants. Using this new framework, the author argues that fiscal policy is not the best solution to the p...

This paper characterises the world real interest rate as a common trend in real interest rates in Germany, Japan, and the United States from 1964Q1 to 1996Q2. This single common trend has desirable properties as the world real interest rate and has been moving together with the world real return on the stock market, and the world real fiscal policy variable, suggesting financial integration and...

Proponents of fiscal stimulus argue that government spending is needed to replace the private spending normally lost during a recession. Estimates of the so-called fiscal multiplier based on wartime episodes are used to support the proposition that a peacetime intervention can “stimulate” the economy in a desirable manner. The author argues that a wartime crisis is fundamentally different from ...

To finance basic pro-poor services, the Government of Ghana must mobilize more public revenue. But tax reform has been highly controversial in Ghana. An attempt to introduce VAT in 1995 failed after widespread protests. Although a second attempt to introduce VAT in 1998 succeeded, strong resistance to tax reform remains, and the total tax base remains narrow and over-dependent on petroleum taxe...