In this paper we study the optimal cross sectional distribution of health care expenditures in a Mirrleesian style environment. We find that, under standard assumptions from the health literature, more productive types should have better health care and that all types should have some health...

Business Cycle Accounting (BCA) is a helpful litmus test for quantitive macroeconomic models. Indeed, deviations from the data and a neo-classical growth model can be summarized as distortion of the efficiency of production or to optimality conditions such as leisure-consumption choices and...

This paper studies the optimal lending contract between an international lender and a sovereign country. A benevolent government finances uncertain expenditures - which are privately observed by the country - using external debt and optimally choosing domestic debt and taxes as in a standard...

intertemporal distortions.

This paper characterizes optimal policy when a government uses indirect control to exert its authority. We develop a dynamic principal-agent model in which a principal (a government) delegates the prevention of a disturbance--such as riots, protests, terrorism, crime, or tax evasion--to an agent...