A country’s political and economic institutions are critical for economic prosperity. The literature abounds with institutional measures, precisely because institutions are multidimensional. We use panel unit root and cointegration tests to examine the time-series properties of several...

This paper reexamines whether fiscal decentralization constrains Leviathan government. Using panel data for Pennsylvania, we compare actual property tax rates to the Leviathan revenue-maximizing rates for municipalities, school districts, and counties. Using spatial econometric methods we also...

Shows that the standard method for estimating elasticity results in asymptotic bias and inconsistent standard errors. Uses time-series econometric techniques to provide unbiased estimates of the long-run growth potential (the long-run elasticity) and cyclical variability (the short-run...

In the former international trade organization, GATT, there were 28 countries who were free riders through a special class of de facto membership. This article distinguishes between two classes of free riders, true and induced, depending on whether the free riders, if faced with exclusion, would...

The Companion lays out a comprehensive history of the field and, in five additional parts, it explores public choice contributions to the study of the origins of the state, the organization of political activity, the analysis of decision-making in non-market institutions, the examination of...

Examining the economics of entrepreneurship from the perspectives of productive versus unproductive entrepreneurial behavior and the role of institutions in economic outcomes, the authors in this book seek to advance the research on institutions by providing a simple framework to analyze the...

Vedder and Gallaway (1991) develop and test a unique theory about the interactions between the levels of spending captured by rent-seeking interest groups. They hypothesize that initially rent seekers cooperate in ways that expand government spending and rents. At some point, however, groups can...