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This paper presents an analysis of the determinants of private investment in the Caribbean region, using data for the 1977-91 time period. Drawing on the endogenous growth literature, a model is developed to capture the impact of public education expenditure on private sector capital formation. The implications of this model are tested in the context of an econometric model assessing the impact of education and other variables on the share of private investment in GDP. The empirical results reveal that public education outlays, as well as economic growth, have a significant effect on private capital formation. Public investment has a negative effect on private investment, while real interest rates and external debt burdens are found to have no statistically significant impact on private investment.

The social security system in Spain has steadily expanded since the late 1970s. Currently, social security expenditure exceeds 15 percent of GDP, being a factor of fiscal imbalance. This paper reviews achievements and the current situation of the social security system, discusses changes in the financing of health-care expenditure in view of the need for fiscal consolidation by the general government, and analyzes the scope for a partial prefunding of future liabilities of the pension system.

The household saving ratio in France has undergone very sharp changes over the past two decades, falling dramatically in the first part of the 1980s before rising in more recent years. This paper emphasizes two factors in the evolution of private saving in France. The first relates to perceptions of household income growth and uncertainty, which are likely to have been affected by deteriorating labor market conditions, and which may therefore help to account for the recent increase in saving. The second factor relates to financial deregulation which may have lowered saving and increased its sensitivity to interest rate changes. It is argued that both factors have played some role in the evolution of French household saving.