This paper introduces new data on the term in office of central bank governors in 137 countries for 1970-2004. Our panel models show that the probability that a central bank governor is replaced in a particular year is positively related to the share of the term in office elapsed, political and...

This paper reviews empirical research on the impact of government capital spending on economic growth. The pros and cons of five different ways to model the relationship between public investment and economic growth are reviewed, while some estimation results are presented for illustrative...

Using new data on the term in office of central bank governors for a large set of countries for 1970-2005, we estimate a model for the probability that a central bank governor is replaced before the end of his legal term in office. We formulate hypotheses based on the literature on the...

IN HIS COMMENT ON THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM SURVEY ARTICLE we wrote with Susanna Lundström (De Haan et al. 2006), Lawson (2006) criticizes five elements of our article: 1.Our use of the term “zealots.†2.Our remarks on the role of government in the construction of the economic freedom...

COLE AND LAWSON (2007) STATE THAT “EQUATION (1) IS Lawson’s preferred specification, while de Haan et al. favor Equation (4).†That is not an appropriate summary of our position, however. We do not have a preference for Equation (4). In our papers on the relationship between...

As in many other OECD countries, government investment expressed as share of GDP has decreased in The Netherlands. Using the concept of Granger causality, we test in a bivariate vector autoregression framework various hypothesis that have been put forward to explain this decline. It is concluded...

Nowadays, it is widely believed that greater disclosure and clarity over policy may lead to greater predictability of central bank actions. We examine whether communication by the European Central Bank (ECB) adds information compared to the information provided by a Taylor rule model in which...

This paper surveys recent evidence suggesting that market-oriented institutions and policies are strongly related to economic growth, focusing on studies using the economic freedom "EF" indicator of the Fraser Institute. This index is critically discussed. Also various serious shortcomings of...

This paper uses a new data set on the term in office of central bank governors in 137 countries covering the period 1970-2004 to estimate a model for the chance that a central bank governor is replaced. We formulate a number of hypotheses based on the literature on the determinants of central...

This paper analyses which economic and political factors affect the chance that a country receives IMF credit or signs an agreement with the Fund. We use a panel model for 118 countries over the period 1971-2000. Our results, based on extreme bounds analysis, suggest that it is mostly economic...