KyklosPub Date : 2025-07-12DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70005
Bernard Cléry Nomo Beyala
{"title":"Do Fiscal Rules Enhance States' Fiscal Capacity?","authors":"Bernard Cléry Nomo Beyala","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70005","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper examines the impact of fiscal rules on fiscal capacity. It is based on the premise that fiscal rules can enhance citizens' tax morale and willingness to pay taxes, thereby improving fiscal capacity. Using a global dataset spanning from 1985 to 2021, we find that stricter fiscal rules have a positive impact on fiscal capacity. This relationship holds when excluding EU countries, differentiating between supranational and national rules and employing alternative measures of fiscal capacity. Robustness checks further reveal that while fiscal capacity tends to rise with the number of rules in place, the combination of rules plays a relevant role. These findings underscore the importance of deliberately selecting and designing fiscal rules to effectively strengthen fiscal capacity.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1539-1566"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-07-10DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70006
Ryan H. Murphy
{"title":"Neutral Theory, Stochasticity, and the Efficiency of Social Institutions","authors":"Ryan H. Murphy","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70006","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper draws on the concept of neutral theory from molecular biology to describe how rational choice foundations may be given to cultural practices or social institutions such that the specifics of the practice or institution are inherently arbitrary, that is, stochastic. Neutral theory describes the process by which genes at the molecular level may propagate across a species without conferring any benefit in terms of evolutionary fitness. Likewise, social institutions or cultural practices may propagate across the group without any instrumental use for them. Interpretations of practices and institutions in terms of neutral theory are generally simpler than other economic explanations. On the other hand, definitionally, neutral explanations of cultural practices are less likely because they will not be actively selected for at the group level.</p>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1530-1538"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/kykl.70006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70004
Yang Zhou, Josh Matti, Nabamita Dutta
{"title":"Language Structure and Political Ideology: Evidence From the World Value Survey","authors":"Yang Zhou, Josh Matti, Nabamita Dutta","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70004","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper studies the relationship between language structure and political ideology. Using several language structure data sets and the World Value Survey data, we test the relationship between linguistic characteristics and political ideologies on democracy for over 150,000 people in countries across the world during the past approximately two decades. We explore the impact of pronoun drop, politeness distinction, and irrealis mood on people's political ideology. In addition to considering the links between these language structures and support for democracy, we also examine how language structures influence what aspects of democracy people care about. Additionally, we also test for heterogeneity by income level and degree of democracy across countries. In considering culture, we conduct mediation analysis with the traits of individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance. Overall, these further tests, along with the robustness tests, support the main results by highlighting the connections between language structures and political ideology.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1514-1529"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-07-02DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70003
Niclas Berggren, Erik Enger Karlson, Elis Hodzic
{"title":"Trust and Income Among Immigrants in Europe","authors":"Niclas Berggren, Erik Enger Karlson, Elis Hodzic","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70003","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Social trust, a key cultural trait influencing economic behavior, plays a critical yet understudied role in immigrant integration. This paper examines how trust, both as an individual disposition and as a culturally inherited norm, relates to the economic integration of immigrants in Europe, measured by household income. Using European Social Survey data from 2002 to 2022, we analyze first- and second-generation immigrants, incorporating both individual trust levels and average trust in countries of origin through an epidemiological approach. We find that trust is positively associated with income for both groups, but its source matters: for first-generation immigrants, country-of-origin trust is a stronger predictor, while for the second generation, individual trust dominates. Origin-based trust appears to facilitate labor market navigation for first-generation immigrants, though its influence diminishes over time. In contrast, second-generation immigrants benefit more from institutional familiarity and culturally embedded trust. Given the stability of social trust and its limited responsiveness to policy, the results point to a need for targeted integration strategies for immigrants from low-trust backgrounds.</p>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1496-1513"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/kykl.70003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70002
Thomas Barnebeck Andersen
{"title":"Sovereign Debt in a Warming World: Are Credit Ratings Responding to Climate Risks?","authors":"Thomas Barnebeck Andersen","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70002","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Investors and policymakers increasingly worry that climate change threatens sovereign debt. While recent studies find a negative effect, they typically estimate models assuming a time-invariant impact and rely on climate variables endogenous to economic and policy conditions. This paper addresses both concerns by employing a long-horizon, nonactionable, external measure of climate risk from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, interacted with year-fixed effects to capture any time-varying impacts. Analyzing sovereign issuer default ratings from major agencies, I find no evidence that climate risk systematically affects ratings or that its influence has evolved over time. I confirm these results using climate disaster data from the Emergency Events Database. These findings likely reflect credit rating agencies' short- to medium-term focus on economic fundamentals rather than on long-term climate risks.</p>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1479-1495"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/kykl.70002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-06-21DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70000
Eric Rougier, Matthieu Clément, François Combarnous, Dominique Darbon
{"title":"“You Can't Always Get What You Want”: Middle-Class Expectations and Incomplete Social Contracts in the Global South","authors":"Eric Rougier, Matthieu Clément, François Combarnous, Dominique Darbon","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70000","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Over the past decade, much of the global middle class has become more vulnerable and disillusioned. Drawing on original qualitative surveys in Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Turkey, and Vietnam, this paper reveals a persistent disconnect between middle-class expectations and government policy in the core domains of the social contract: public services, social protection, and participation. On the demand side, middle-class respondents report frustration with poor service provision—particularly in education, health, and security—and with tax systems, they perceive as burdensome yet unreciprocated. On the supply side, policymakers emphasize market access and credit expansion while retreating from broad-based public support, a pattern we term “laissez-faire paternalism.” Despite their dissatisfaction, middle-class citizens often remain politically disengaged due to fragmentation and institutional barriers, producing a form of “truncated citizenship” in which they enjoy consumption rights but lack political influence. These findings challenge the assumption that middle-class growth naturally drives reform. Instead, we find a fragmented and politically instrumentalized group with limited capacity to press for change. By contrasting demand- and supply-side perceptions, the paper uncovers institutional blind spots and warns of rising frustration and instability if governance does not become more inclusive and responsive.</p>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1463-1478"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/kykl.70000","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-06-18DOI: 10.1111/kykl.70001
Zhiyong An
{"title":"Food as a Necessity Good and Food Subsidies","authors":"Zhiyong An","doi":"10.1111/kykl.70001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.70001","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>In this article, we extend a benchmark model to allow for a non-welfarist social welfare function (SWF) that treats food as a necessity good rather than a regular good, while preserving the assumption that individuals are rational. We show that the widespread use of food subsidies by governments worldwide for redistributive purposes can be justified by recognizing food as a necessity good in almost all societies. Specifically, (1) If food is treated as a regular good, food consumption should be neither taxed nor subsidized; (2) If food is treated as a necessity good, food consumption should be subsidized; and (3) The higher the “basic need” for food, the more heavily food consumption should be subsidized. We argue that our model provides a general theoretical framework that can also justify subsidies for other necessity goods, including essential utilities such as electricity and gas. Additionally, our model suggests that adopting a non-welfarist SWF would result in the breakdown of the Atkinson–Stiglitz theorem.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1457-1462"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-06-18DOI: 10.1111/kykl.12478
Minfeng Yu, Bingjing Xie, Zeyuan Huang, Mengna Fan
{"title":"Does Climate Risk Affect Management Sentiment?","authors":"Minfeng Yu, Bingjing Xie, Zeyuan Huang, Mengna Fan","doi":"10.1111/kykl.12478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12478","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We use extreme weather events as quasi-natural experiments to examine their impact on management sentiment. Based on a sample of China's A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2020, we find that managers issue more pessimistic forecasts following climate disasters. Moreover, the impact of climate risk on management forecast pessimism is more pronounced in firms with lower financial flexibility, less-experienced CEOs, and CEOs with less specialist experience. In addition, economic losses and heightened future uncertainty are the primary drivers of management pessimism after extreme weather events. Further analysis reveals that managers issue more ambiguous earnings forecasts and adopt a more negative tone in the wake of climate disasters.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1440-1456"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-06-11DOI: 10.1111/kykl.12476
Ennio E. Piano, Benjamin W. Bauer, Clara E. Piano
{"title":"Competition Within the Church: Market Entry and the Rise of Traditional Catholicism in the United States","authors":"Ennio E. Piano, Benjamin W. Bauer, Clara E. Piano","doi":"10.1111/kykl.12476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12476","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Catholic Church enacted broad reforms after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), notably to the liturgies that Catholics must attend every Sunday. However, there has been a revival of pre-Vatican II practices recently, such as the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). We explore the role played in this resurgence by the entry of a traditionalist Catholic competitor (the Society of Saint Pius X) in the market for religious services. Using data from the continental United States, we show that the presence of SSPX chapels significantly increases the availability of TLMs, particularly on Sundays when attendance at a Mass is required. We also find evidence that the effect is strongest at a local level and that it has intensified over time, possibly due to Pope Benedict XVI's liberalization of TLM celebrations in 2007.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1405-1423"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
KyklosPub Date : 2025-06-11DOI: 10.1111/kykl.12477
Piotr Bialowolski, Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Andrzej Cwynar
{"title":"Reassessing the Role of Financial Knowledge and Confidence for Financial Outcomes Across Income Groups in the EU","authors":"Piotr Bialowolski, Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Andrzej Cwynar","doi":"10.1111/kykl.12477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12477","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This research utilizes Flash Eurobarometer data (<i>N</i> = 26,139) collected in 2023 from 27 EU nations to examine the link between financial knowledge, financial confidence, income, and financial outcomes. The findings reaffirm positive correlations between these factors and the examined financial outcomes. Notably, financial confidence often shows a stronger association with the likelihood of achieving financial outcomes than objective financial knowledge, particularly in areas such as long-term financial goal setting, retirement planning, and confidence in financial advisors. The study also highlights that the likelihood of achieving financial outcomes is rarely more linked with financial knowledge or financial confidence among high-income individuals than among low-income ones. These findings underscore the possibly critical role of income in achieving positive financial outcomes and suggest that improving financial well-being may require a multifaceted approach. A combination of financial education, income-support policies, and initiatives to build financial confidence may represent an effective policy mix for improving overall financial well-being across diverse income groups.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47739,"journal":{"name":"Kyklos","volume":"78 4","pages":"1424-1439"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}