The U.S. economy isn't recovering from the deep Great Recession of 2008-2009 with the anticipated strength. A widespread conjecture is that this weakness can be traced to perceptions of an imminent switch to a higher taxes regime. The paper explores quantitatively this fiscal sentiment...

Over the U.S. business cycle, fluctuations in residential investment systematically lead fluctuations in real GDP. Evidently, these dynamics are specific to the U.S. and Canada. In other developed economies residential investment tends to be coincident with the cycle. On the other hand, in all...