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We would like to kindly invite you to a seminar jointly organized by CERGE-EI and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung titled Financial Constitution and National Budget Council of the Czech Republic. The seminar will take place on Thursday December 11, 2014 from 13:00 to 15:30 at CERGE-EI (Politických vězňů 7, Prague 1).

The Czech Government's bill on budgetary responsibility will be presented by members of the government and discussed by both Czech and foreign experts.

The following persons will be presenting:

Ivan Pilip,member of negotiation team
Jaroslav Klaška, MP (KDU-ČSL)
Jan Volný, MP (ANO)
Jan Kudrna, advisor to the Prime Minister (ČSSD)
Steffen Flath, former MP, Saxony, Germany
Martin Gregor, economist and director of IES
Petr Janský, IDEA CERGE-EI
Pavlína Žáková, Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic

Vilém Semerák from think tank IDEA will moderate the seminar. The event will be held in Czech with simultaneous translation to German.

See the full program in Czech or in German.

Reserve your seat here.

Carlo Prato, Ph.D.

Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA

Authors: Carlo Prato and Stephane Wolton

Abstract: This paper studies how economic conditions affects the likelihood of reform. Using a novel theory of the electoral process where successful communication of candidates' platforms requires effort from both candidates and a representative voter, we show that candidates' platform choices depend critically on the voter's gain from reform. When her gain from reform is low, no candidate proposes policy change; when it is high, non-competent politicians run on harmful reformist platform. In line with empirical findings, our model rationalizes why reforms occur rarely in good and bad times and why crises can lead to delayed and botched reforms.

JEL Classification: D72, D78, D83.

Keywords: Crises, Reforms, Elections, Campaigns.

Full Text: “Crises and The Puzzle of Reforms”