In this paper we study the link between elections, fiscal policy and economic growth/fluctuations. The set-up is a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of growth and endogenously chosen fiscal policy, in which two political parties can alternate in power. The party in office chooses...

By studying the gap between the discount rates used by executives and shareholders, we assess the extent to which governance problems distort firm behavior. The estimation strategy recovers discount rates used by executives from the pattern of their actual investment spending. Our empirical work...

We present a theoretical model of a parliamentary democracy, where party structures, government coalitions and fiscal policies are endogenously determined. The model predicts that, relative to proportional elections, majoritarian elections reduce government spending because they reduce party...

This article discusses the effects of corporate tax asymetries under investment irreversibility. We indroduce a tax scheme where the tax base is given by the firm's return net of a rate of relief. When the firm's return is less than the imputation rate, however, no tax refunds are allowed....

This article studies the effects of corporate tax asymmetries on irreversible investment. We discuss an asymmetric tax scheme where the tax base is given by the firm`s return, net of an imputation rate. When the firm`s return is less than this rate, however, no tax refunds are allowed. Contrary...

Suppose that a group of agents having divergent expectations can share risks efficiently. We examine how this group should behave collectively to manage these risks. We show that the beliefs of the representative agent is in general a function of the group's wealth level, or equivalently, that...

In this paper we address the issue of how transmission uncertainty could affect the choice between a federal monetary policy based on national data and one on aggregated data. We find that the uncertainty about the transmission process increases the need to take into account information about...

This article discusses the effects of an asymmetric tax scheme on incremental and sequential investment strategies. The tax base is equal to the firm's return, net of an imputation rate. When the firm's return is less than this rate, however, no tax refunds are allowed. This scheme is neutral...

This article discusses the effects of taxation on the discrete choice of alternative projects. In particular, it is shown that if taxation affects the optimal timing of irreversible investment, then the discrete choice is distorted as well. This result has both methodological and political...