This paper examines the Macau welfare model. Having experienced a structural shift in its economic development, establishing a Casino-based economy, Macau has yet to develop an adequate social security system. This paper examines the history, and particularly the recent period since the Handover...

A large literature has claimed that higher political participation increases welfare spending. In this paper, I review this literature. I study the theoretical link between participation and redistributive spending. Then, I survey the empirical literature on the link between education, income...

The econometric consensus on the effects of social spending confirms a puzzle we confront in the raw data: There is no clear net GDP cost of high tax-based social spending on GDP, despite a tradition of assuming that such costs are large. This paper offers five keys to this free lunch puzzle....