The appropriate size and role of government depends on the deadweight burden caused by incremental transfers of funds from the private sector. The magnitude of that burden depends on the increases in tax rates required to raise incremental revenue and on the deadweight loss that results from...

This paper, which was written as part of the NBER project on American economic policy in the 1980s, examines the changes in government spending and budget deficits during the decade. The paper analyzes why the deficit increased substantially and looks at the policy options for reducing the...

The evidence and analysis in this paper support the earlier findings of Feldstein and Horioka (1980) that sustained increases in domestic savings rates induce approximately equal increases in domestic rates of investment. New estimates for the post-OPEC period 1974-79 imply that each extra...

How internationally mobile is the world's supply of capital? Does capital flow among industrial countries to equalize the yield to investors? Alternatively, does the saving that originates in a country remain 'to be invested there? Or does the truth lie somewhere between these two extremes? The...

This paper analyzes the effect of outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) on the domestic capital stock. The first part of the paper shows that only about 20 percent of the value of assets owned by U.S. affiliates abroad is financed by cross-border flows of capital from the United States. An...

This paper extends earlier work by Feldstein and Horioka on the relation between domestic saving rates and international capital flows or, equivalently, between domestic saving rates and domestic investment. The basic conclusion of the present analysis is that an increase in domestic saving has...

Any arrangement that is to serve as a long-term framework for international debt management must permit a politically acceptable rate of economic growth in the debtor countries while gradually improving the financial positions of the creditor banks. In addition, a realistic debt management...