We test how government revenue and expenditure depend on economic activity, elections, and ideology. We show how the use of fiscal forecasts makes it possible better to understand the determinants of fiscal variables and to separate fiscal policy rules from discretionary policies. The approach...

The authors test how government revenue and expenditure depend on ideology, elections, and economic activity. They show how fiscal forecasts can be used to identify the determinants of government revenue and expenditure. The approach is illustrated using a unique, unpublished Swedish data set of...

Many comparisons of the performance of public and private producers use a public/private ownership dummy varaible to capture cost differences in cross section data. This is appropriate if the producer choice is random. The dummy variable model is, however, logically inconsistent if the producer...