The contrastive approach to explanation is employed to shed light on the issue of the unrealisticness of models and their assumptions in economics. If we take explanations to be answers to contrastive questions of the form, then unrealistic elements such as omissions and idealizations are (at...

This paper studies the consequences of debt policies on the spatial distribution of output in a two-country model. It departs from the usual set up of local public finance by relaxing the assumption of balanced budget. Further, to single out the pure effect of debt the paper eliminates effects...

In this paper we analyse the determinants of the localisation of industrial activity in Spain during the second half of the XIX century. In particular, we try to determine possible changes in the importance of the factors that explain industrial location in order to study the effects of economic...

This paper studies the effects of integration on capital taxation in a number of OECD countries. Unlike most previous papers on the subject, we combine key features from the new economic geography theory with the standard tax competition framework. We consider effective as well as statutory...

This article studies the consequences of debt policies on the spatial distribution of output in a two-country model. It departs from the usual setup of local public finance by relaxing the assumption of balanced budget. Further, to single out the pure effect of debt, the article eliminates...