Attempting to shed light on the optimal size of government, economists have analyzed planning problems that specify a … choice of a planner who knows the welfare achieved by each policy. This paper examines choice of size of government by a … a wide range of spending levels--thus, a society can rationalize having a small or large government. I conclude that to …

size of this political distortion. In this paper we study the determination of government debt and deficits in a dynamic …, a rent-seeking government over-saves and over-taxes along the equilibrium path relative to a benevolent government …

This paper develops a simple theoretical framework to study a set of regions, each with its own regional government …, who share a union or central government. These governments must decide whether to implement or discard a large number of … are insensitive to externalities. The key observation here is that the union government is insensitive to local benefits …

We present a theory of endogenous fiscal policy and growth. Fiscal policy — debt, income tax, spending on local public … we call the shrinking government effect: public debt grows faster than GDP, provisions of public goods and infrastructure …

, indicating that most government insiders quickly wear out their welcome, and then drop once the minister is fully entrenched in …