We argue that the literature on government size suffers from neglecting the role of governance both as a driving and a limiting factor for government spending. Cross-country evidence for a sample of 126 developed and developing countries averaging data for the period 2003-07 reveals that better...

Explanations for the growth of the government that imply that it always grows are obviously destroyed by the early period histories. Something must have happened to change the way in which we respond to our governments or our governments respond to us. I have offered Bismarckism as a possible...

This paper explores the determinants of public employment across the world and finds that it is negatively associated with country size (by population) and positively associated with the income level. The findings show that a country's openness to trade is positively associated with public...