Psychological experiments demonstrate that people exhibit a taste for consistency. Individuals are inclined to interpret new evidence in ways that confirm their pre-existing beliefs. They also tend to change their beliefs to enhance the desirability of their past actions. I present a model that...

This study presents a two-period overlapping-generations model featuring en- dogenous growth and intergenerational conflict over fiscal policy. In particular, we characterize a Markov-perfect political equilibrium of the voting game between gen- erations, and show the following results. First,...

This paper develops a two-period overlapping-generations model featuring en- dogenous growth and intergenerational conflict over fiscal policy. In particular, the paper characterizes a Markov-perfect political equilibrium of the voting game be- tween generations, and shows the following results....

This paper studies implementation of the social optimum in a model of addictive consumption. We consider corrective taxes that address inefficiencies due to negative externalities, imperfect competition, and self-control problems. Our setup allows us to evaluate how such taxes are affected by...

We study a parametric politico-economic model of economic growth with productive public goods and public consumption goods. The provision of public goods is funded by a proportional tax on consumers' income. Agents are heterogeneous in their initial capital endowments, discount factors and the...

This paper analyzes the political economy of public education and redistribution in an overlapping-generation model of a two-class society in which growth is driven by the accumulation of human capital. The levels of public education and lump- sum financial transfers are determined by voting,...

This paper analyzes the political economy of public education and in-cash trans- fer in an overlapping generations model of a two-class society in which the dynamics of inequality is driven by the accumulation of human capital. The two redistributive policies are determined by voting, while...

This paper analyzes the political economy of public education and lump-sum transfer in an overlapping-generation model of a two-class society in which the dy- namics of inequality is driven by the accumulation of human capital. The two redistributive policies are determined by voting, while...

We study the intergenerational conflict over the provision of public education. This conflict arises because older households without children have weaker incentives to support the provision of high quality educational services in a community than younger households with school-age children. We...