The Great Recession has revived aggregate demand management policies. In particular, automatic stabilizers are praised since they are rule based and thus operate swiftly and symmetrically across the cycle. However, automatic stabilizers are not a result of macro design but the structure of the...

How does international integration affect the welfare state? Does it call for a leaner welfare state to reap the benefits of integraiton or is it necessary to expand the welfare state to offset some negative consequences of international integration? This paper addresses these issues in a fully...

Time-inconsistent, present-biased agents may hold commitment assets hoping to keep their current and future present bias in check. Paternalistic governments, in an effort to help such people, routinely offer commitment machinery such as restrictions (or bans) on early withdrawals from...