Among 188 countries, 72 had no state religion in 2000, 1970, and 1900; 58 had a state religion throughout; and 58 had 1 or 2 transitions. We use a Hotelling spatial competition model to analyze the likelihood that the religion market would be monopolized. Similar forces influence a government's...

The neoclassical growth model is modified to include a variable rate of time preference. With no commitment ability and log utility, the equilibrium features a constant effective rate of time preference and is observationally equivalent to the standard model. The extended framework yields...

For U.S. annual data that include World War II, the estimated multiplier for temporary defense spending is 0.4--0.5 contemporaneously and 0.6--0.7 over 2 years. If the change in defense spending is "permanent" (gauged by Ramey's defense news variable), the multipliers are higher by 0.1--0.2....

Common currencies affect trading costs and, thereby, the amounts of trade, output, and consumption. From the perspective of monetary policy, the adoption of another country's currency trades off the benefits of commitment to price stability (if a committed anchor is selected) against the loss of...