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Addressing climate change and protecting the environment have become the key global challenges and priorities and requires a whole-of-society approach. Many countries are increasing their commitments to meet the Paris Agreement's goals, introducing green budgeting among them. The goal of the paper is to understand how public participation in public budgeting with green objectives is being effectuated in the Russian Federation, and to look at what governments can do to facilitate it. The author explores the relevance of environmental problems for Russians, and analyses public participation in environmental policy-making with a focus on budgeting in Russia. The paper provides examples of green participatory budgeting practices of global interest, highlights the potential of participatory budgeting encouraging pro-environmental behaviour, potentially enriching the repertoire of climate-friendly actions and fostering the growing interest in green budgeting. The author concludes with recommendations on how to improve public participation in relation to greening the budget process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Croatian authorities' response to the pandemic crisis was considerably greater in size and scope than their reaction to the 2008-09 global financial crisis. This paper aims to identify the main factors that allowed the authorities to respond so ambitiously this time. In particular, the paper explains how solid macroeconomic fundamentals backed by a steady inflow of EU funds enabled the Croatian government and the Croatian National Bank to take bold steps to restore stability in key financial markets and provide liquidity support to the economy without compromising currency stability and fiscal sustainability. In addition, as an EU member state, Croatia was in a position to benefit from a currency swap line with the ECB, as well as from the EU's common recovery facility, which reduced concerns about the pandemic-induced rise in government debt. Finally, the paper identifies some positive external factors that were beneficial for all emerging market economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research belongs focuses on the effects of financial instability on the rest of the economy. The article observes the dynamic changes of the shock spillovers between systemic stress and the rest of the German economy. In that way, the net emitters and receivers of shocks are observed throughout time, as previous research found that systemic stress is not always the predictor of other economic activity. The analysis utilizes Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012) spillover index approach within the vector autoregression model. One step further is taken as well, as the changes of dynamics are observed throughout the entire period. As the macroprudential and monetary policymakers have to track the interrelationships between these variables over time, the approach in the study is straightforward and easy to interpret. The timing and intensity of the specific measures are important in practice, and such an approach enables the policymakers to meet these criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies investigating the relationship between lobbying and bribery are limited and contradictory. Some studies regard lobbying and bribery as substitutes while others consider them complementary strategies. Using congestion games this study attempts to clarify the externalities present in these rent-seeking strategies which generate complementarities between them. Lobbying cost-sharing and cooperation through business associations and congestion in benefits from competitive bribery are important sources of externalities. The theoretical model is then investigated empirically. The results indicate that lobbying and bribery are complementary strategies. However, as countries grow, lobbying will be used more intensely. The results also show that there is a positive externality in collective lobbying so that firms that cooperate can save on lobbying costs. There are also externalities in competitive bribery. The results show that the effects of social and legal punishments of bribery are considerable but become less severe as corruption becomes more widespread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax revenue has been declining in most countries recently. Therefore, to better understand the reasons behind this, some studies focus on supply factors, while few studies focus on demand factors. In this context, this study aims to analyse the impact of rule of law on tax revenues in 59 countries by using the panel data method over the period 2002-2018 considering the level of economic development. This study is different from previous studies in several respects. Firstly, it uses a different and more comprehensive index to measure rule of law. Secondly, we focus on the economic level of countries, which is a crucial factor for measuring efficiency of the rule of law. The results show that the effect of rule of law on tax revenues varies based on the level of economic development of the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slovakia belongs to a highly decentralised group of European countries, especially in terms of autonomy of local governments. The structure of local governments is extremely fragmented and therefore the individual capacities of many of them can be quite limited. Programme performance-based budgeting was introduced as a compulsory budgetary innovation for all larger local governments several years ago. Moreover, dozens of them have already experienced participatory budgeting. The aim of this article is to analyse the links between programme performance-based budgeting and participatory budgeting as local budgetary innovations and to identify the key political factors influencing the spread and durability of participatory budgeting in Slovakia. The findings show that in most municipalities there is a link between PB and PPBB, which is rather positive and could help to sustain PB in the municipality. The second part of the research reveals two political determinants influencing the success of participatory budgeting in Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]