We construct a growth model with an explicit government role, where more government resources reduce the optimal level of private consumption and of output per worker. In the empirical analysis, for a panel of 108 countries from 1970-2008, we use different proxies for government size and...

Fiscal policy has become quite controversial in the post-Keynesian era, the debate over the Obama stimulus package being a contentious recent example. Some pundits go so far as to take the position that macroeconomic theory has failed to meaningfully progress in terms of providing useful...

Elevated levels of government debt raise concerns about their effects on long-term growth prospects. Using the cross section of US stock returns, we show that (i) high-R&D firms are more exposed to government debt and pay higher expected returns than low-R&D firms; and (ii) higher levels of the...

We compare the size, structure and evolution of the public sectors in Canada and the United States primarily using national income accounting data. In the course of this investigation, which is accompanied by a substantial spreadsheet covering the period from 1929 to 2003/2004, questions are...

Following a severe contraction in the early 1990s, the Swedish economy accumulated a strong record of output growth coupled with a disappointing performance in the labor market. As of 2005, hours worked per person 20-64 years of age are 10.5 percent below the 1990 peak and a mere one percent...

The purpose of this research endeavor - in the form of eight articles - to be published in 2013 in a Special Section of Industrial and Corporate Change is to further our understanding of the extent, character and orientation of entrepreneurial activity in today's wealthy countries. This is done...

We develop an endogenous growth model to quantify how permanent structural policy changes that enhance the fiscal policy mix, markets' functioning, and public institutions' quality affect long-term growth and welfare. The reforms include increased public investment, reduced market power through...

The current debt crisis in many OECD countries calls for adequate strategies in budget consolidation. To regain fiscal solvency many governments base their fiscal adjustments at least partly on spending cuts. A common political claim is that spending cuts rely too much on investment thereby...

The current debt crisis in many OECD countries calls for adequate strategies in budget consolidation. To regain fiscal solvency many governments base their fiscal adjustments at least partly on spending cuts. A common political claim is that spending cuts rely too much on investment thereby...