Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 9, No 6 (2013)

Abstract

The article presents a theme of great interest for political parties, public administration representatives and researchers as each country tries to implement those policies that bring about economic growth. This study aims to determine the key role of taxation for achieving economic growth and to highlight to what extent the different fiscal levers can influence it. The main issues are the tax systems and policies adopted by the EU members for reaching an optimal yield from implementing their own tax rules. As a result, the paper underlines the best policies in relation to the identification of several tax systems that generate five models. The study of the correlations between the level of taxation, budget deficit and public debt, on the one hand, and the level of economic welfare, expressed by the economic growth rate, according to Eurostat statistics, on the other hand, enables us to establish the influence of public policies on the economic development. The case study represents a quantitative analysis of the variables that have an impact on economic growth, using empirical data on the performance of the EU countries for 2000 – 2012. The research offers a unique approach and the results prove the sustainability of the hypothesis.