We use US county level data (3,058 observations) from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and the extent of government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. We find that increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively...

We use U.S. county-level data to estimate convergence rates for 22 individual states. We find significant heterogeneity. E.g., the California estimate is 19.9 percent and the New York estimate is 3.3 percent. Convergence rates are essentially uncorrelated with income levels.

This article discusses some inconsistencies of the recent book by L. Ricolfi "il sacco del Nord".

The study investigated the impact of government size on economic growth and determined the optimal government size that will promote growth in ECOWAS Countries. This was with a view to determining the relationship between government size and economic growth in ECOWAS countries. The study...

This research note discusses the Euro crisis in Greece in light of the referendum of July the 5th. It lays out the social and political costs of a GREXIT, but also of a continuing austerity policy. It proposes a reform policy fostering growth in Greece and discusses the role of conditionality....

Heavy indebtedness and debt service payments, indicated by debt magnitudes and shares to national budgets, revenues, or outputs, mean that spending for public infrastructure and basic services is crowded out, even as they entail more borrowings in order to timely meet debt obligations. The...

Wagner’s Law suggests that as the GDP of a country increases, so does its government expenditure. We test for the Law for Thailand using recent advances in econometric techniques. Both total and per capita GDP and government expenditure are used. Ng-Perron unit root tests show that all...

Meta analysis is conducted to review 32 empirical studies with 169 estimates to find the combined overall effect of military expenditure on economic growth. Using a meta fixed and random effects and regression analysis, our results show that there exists a "genuine" net effect of military...

A common presumption is that increased growth in the aggregate enhances the welfare of both the rich and the poor. I show that instead, as the rich get richer, the welfare of the poor may decline if the underlying growth is asymmetric. There are two distinct and complementary explanations:...