We exploit differences in casualties sustained in pre-modern wars to estimate the impact of fiscal capacity on economic performance. In the past, states fought different amounts of external conflicts, of various lengths and magnitudes. To raise the revenues to wage wars, states made fiscal...

We analyze the formality benefits through productivity-enhancing public goods. We document that: benefits from formality matter for firms’ optimal decisions; there is a disconnect between the objectives of maximizing formality versus welfare; this disconnect is mitigated under higher formality...

The paper quantitatively investigates, in general equilibrium, the interaction between the firms' choice to operate in the formal or the informal sector and government policy on taxation and enforcement, given a level of regulation. A static version of Ghironi and Melitz's (2005) industry model...

We exploit differences in casualties sustained in pre-modern wars to estimate the impact of fiscal capacity on economic performance. In the past, states fought different amounts of external conflicts, of various lengths and magnitudes. To raise the revenues to wage wars, states made fiscal...

Under the hypothesis that aggregate U.S. consumption is random and, more importantly, viewed as ambiguous by consumers, we examine the implications for asset prices and for how consumption fluctuations influence consumer welfare. We consider a simple, Mehra–Prescott-style endowment economy...

This paper investigates the relationship between inflation and output in the context of an economy facing persistent high inflation. By analyzing the case of Brazil, we find that inflation does not impact real output in the long run, but that in the short run there exists a negative effect from...

This study applies the Dynamic Slacks Based Model (DSBM) developed by Tone and Tsutsui (2010) in order to assess the evolution of input saving/output increasing potentials in major Brazilian Banks from 1996 to 2011. We propose that these potentials or slacks can be used as proxies for an...

The paper establishes empirically the temporal causality and long run relationship between government expenditures and government revenues for the case of Guinea-Bissau - a low income country under stress (LICUS) in Africa. A macroeconomic model is developed to lay out the hypothesis of a...

This paper analyses airline accidents data from 1927-2006. The fractional integration methodology is adopted. It is shown that airline accidents are persistent and (fractionally) cointegrated with airline traffic. Thus, there exists an equilibrium relation between air accidents and airline...