This paper examines the impact of labour and product market reforms on economic growth in 25 OECD countries between 1985 and 2013, and tests whether this impact is conditioned by the fiscal policy stance, i.e. whether there are fiscal expansions or adjustments. Our local projection results...

We study empirically how various labor market institutions - (i) union density, (ii) unemployment benefit remuneration, and (iii) employment protection - shape fiscal multipliers and output volatility. Our theoretical model highlights that more stringent labor market institutions attenuate both...

The empirical effectiveness of economic policies that operate theoretically through similar channels differs substantially. We document this fact by comparing an easy-to-grasp expectations-based policy, unconventional fiscal policy, with a policy whose implications are harder to understand by...

Policymakers, faced with different options for replacing lost earnings, have had limited evidence to inform their decisions. The current economic crisis has highlighted the need for data that are local and timely so that different fiscal policy options on local economies can be more immediately...

The number of drugs approved by the FDA for treating cancer has increased substantially during the last 40 years. Moreover, cancer drug innovation has been accelerating: more than 8 times as many new cancer drugs were approved during 2005-2015 as were approved during 1975-1985 (66 vs. 8). During...

Monetary policy decisions tend to be based on systematic analysis of alternative policy choices and their associated macroeconomic impacts: this is science. Fiscal policy choices, in contrast, spring from unsystematic speculation, grounded more in politics than economics: this is alchemy. In...