We study variations in the severity of the 1997 financial crisis in a sample of 25 developing countries. We use both currency depreciation and stock market returns as crisis measures. Our key findings are that countries that started 1997 with an exchange rate peg experienced significantly...

The authors argue that winner-take-all voting in states and the unequal distribution of electoral votes across states in presidential elections makes incumbent presidents rationally place more weight on the preferences of voters in closely contested, larger states when making policy decisions....

The authors examine the linkage between federal deficits and money growth by allowing the Fed's resp onse to any given deficit to vary systematically according to how the deficit is generated and the party affiliation of the current presid ent. In equations for M1 and monetary base growth, the...