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Democratic Capital : The Nexus of Political and Economic Change

Persson, Torsten - 2010

We study the joint dynamics of economic and political change. Predictions of the simple model that we formulate in the paper get considerable support in a panel of data on political regimes and GDP per capita for about 150 countries over 150 years. Democratic capital -- measured by a nation's...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012761656

Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution : the Poum Hypothesis

Bénabou, Roland; Ok, Efe A. - 2021

Even relatively poor people oppose high rates of redistribution because of the anticipation that they or their children may move up the income ladder. This hypothesis commonly advanced as an explanation of why most democracies do not engage in large-scale expropriation and highly progressive...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013218092

Why Do Politicians Delegate?

Alesina, Alberto F.; Tabellini, Guido - 2021

Opportunistic politicians maximize the probability of reelection and rents from office holding. Can it be optimal from their point of view to delegate policy choices to independent bureaucracies? The answer is yes: politicians will delegate some policy tasks, though in general not those that...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013220814

Inequality and Growth

Bénabou, Roland - 2021

Using two unifying models and an empirical exercise, this paper present and extends the main theories linking income distribution and growth, as well as the relevant empirical evidence. The first model integrates the political economy and imperfect capital markets theories. It allows for...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013223063

Heterogeneity, Stratification, and Growth

Bénabou, Roland - 2021

We examine how economic stratification affects inequality and growth over time. We study economies where heterogenous agents interact through local public goods or externalities (school funding, neighborhood effects) and economy-wide linkages (complementary skills. knowledge spillovers). We...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013233451

Why is Fiscal Policy Often Procyclical?

Alesina, Alberto F.; Tabellini, Guido - 2021

Many countries, especially developing ones, follow procyclical fiscal polices, namely spending goes up (taxes go down) in booms and spending goes down (taxes go up) in recessions. We provide an explanation for this suboptimal fiscal policy based upon political distortions and incentives for...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013240582

Education, Income Distribution and Growth : The Local Connection

Bénabou, Roland - 2021

This paper develops a simple model of human capital accumulation and community formation by heterogeneous families, which provides an integrated framework for analyzing the local determinants of inequality and growth. Five main conclusions emerge. First, minor differences in education...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013247651

Unequal Societies

Bénabou, Roland - 2021

This paper aims to explain the significant variations in the social contract observed across nations. It shows how countries with similar technologies and preferences, as well as equally democratic political systems, can sustain very different average and marginal tax rates. Similarly, it...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013210599

The Political Resource Curse

Brollo, Fernanda - 2010

politicians, both with theory and data. The theory is based on a version of the career concerns model of political agency with … implications of the theory and identify the causal effect of larger federal transfers on political corruption and the observed … features of political candidates at the municipal level. In accordance with the predictions of the theory, we find that larger …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013148374

Political Instability, Political Weakness and Inflation : An Empirical Analysis

Edwards, Sebastian; Tabellini, Guido - 2021

In this paper we analyze empirically the most important implications of two family political economy models of inflation: the "myopic? government approach and the "weak" government approach. In myopic government models inflation is the deliberate outcome of politicians strategic behavior, while...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013244087