This note provides a simple exposition of what IV can and cannot estimate in a model with a binary treatment variable and heterogeneous treatment effects. It shows how linear IV is a misspecification of functional form and the reason why linear IV estimates for this model will always depend on...

This paper documents the convergence of incomes across Indian states over the period 1965 to 1998. It departs from traditional analyses of convergence by tracking the evolution of the entire income distribution, instead of standard regression and time series analyses. The findings reveal...

Equilibrium models have been proposed in literature with the aim of describing the evolution of the price of emission permits. This paper derives first a reducedform model from an equilibrium model and thereby explains how existing reducedform models are related to equilibrium models. Second, by...

In this paper I analyse four different but related concepts, each of which highlights some aspect of the way in which the state acquires command over real resources through its ability to issue fiat money. They are (1) seigniorage (the change in the monetary base), (2) Central Bank revenue (the...

Explicitly or implicitly, general models of European integration claim that EC regulatory expansion involves a struggle for power between Commission and national governments. The Commission is seen as a policy entrepreneur, taking the initiative to drive forward integration (Sandholtz and Zysman...

Globalisation is a phenomenon that is said to have radically changed the international economy. It is said to have radically limited the power of national governments, particular in the field of taxation, in a world of highly mobile capital and flexible transnational corporations. To explore the...

Visiting the main employment office in Warsaw in late 1989, I asked how many people they were currently paying benefits to. The answer (in a city of 1.6 million people) was five. A year later, unemployment in Poland was more than a million, and by December 1993 was three million. There is no...

This paper discusses how to construct student loans to ensure that, for the most part, they count as private spending. Though the specifics relate to the finance of higher education, the issue has much wider ramifications for flexible combinations of public and private activity, for example in...