This paper looks at five different ways in which the effect of fiscal policy on aggregate demand in the short term can be empirically estimated, and asks two questions: First, given the assumption that fiscal policy has the same effect across countries, which of the five indicators is the...

This paper focuses on the observed empirical relationship between fiscal rules and budget deficits, and examines whether this correlation is driven by an omitted variable, namely voter preferences. We make use of two different estimation methods to capture voter preferences in a panel of Swiss...

Arab countries have been performing very poorly in attracting FDI inflows relative to other developing countries since the early 1990s. Arab countries might hence be missing out on growth and development, if FDI is associated with positive externalities. The recent empirical literature on FDI...

This paper tests the central predictions of the theoretical tax competition literature for capital tax rates for a panel of European Union countries, notably a race to the bottom in capital tax rates. One measure of capital mobility is found to exhibit a downward pressure on capital taxes while...

The paper reviews the theoretical literature on capital tax competition relevant for capital taxation in the European Union. The basic tax competition model a la Zodrow and Mierzkowski (1986) is presented, and the arguments of the literature are subsequently integrated into the framework of the...

The standard tax competition literature predicts a race to the bottom in capital tax rates as capital mobility increases. Recently, the very different modeling framework of the new economic geography literature has produced the contrasting result that economic integration leads to agglomeration...

If women have different economic preferences than men, then female economic and political empowerment is likely to change policy and household decisions, and in turn macroeconomic outcomes. We test the hypothesis that female enfranchisement leads to lower government budget deficits due gender...