We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

We examine the impact of geo-referenced World Bank development programs on subnational development using equally sized grid cells with a spatial resolution of 0.5 decimal degrees latitude x longitude as the unit of investigation. The proposed grid cell approach solves a number of endogeneity...

This paper reviews the existing evidence on the effects of tax reforms on output levels and growth over the short and long run from different strands of the literature. It develops and applies criteria to evaluate the usefulness of ex-post estimates to predict the effects of tax reforms ex-ante....

The link between public debt and growth has long been discussed. This paper evaluates the effect on growth convergence from local government debt using a panel data of 276 Chinese cities. Our results show that Chinese local government debt hike since 2008 had a robust positive effect on growth...

Does the design of a tax matter for growth? Assembling a novel dataset for 30 OECD countriesover the 1970-2016 period, this paper examines whether the value added tax (VAT) may havedifferent effects on long-run growth depending on whether it is raised through the standard rateor through...

Should fiscal consolidations be front-loaded or proceed at a more steady pace, and how does this affect growth? We make an attempt to address this question using a three-step methodology. First, we modify a standard regression of growth on consolidation size to allow speed to affect the...

Is China-Africa economic relation instrumental for capital flight and poverty reduction in FZ? Does it matter in the improvement of external debt's impact on GDP per capita and capital flight reduction in particular? This paper extends and assesses the Asongu and Aminkeng (2013) conclusions...

For over 60 years conspicuous sums of money have been diverted to southern Italian regions. Nonetheless the positive effect of the so called extraordinary intervention has been limited. The south continues to be characterized by stagnant economies with high unemployment rates and rather low...

The structural transformation of the Indian economy from agriculture (primary sector) dominated to one led by the services sector (tertiary sector), bypassing the intermediate stage of manufacturing (secondary sector) led growth, offers an alternative to conventional theories of economic...

We study the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth for 23 OECD countries from 1975 to 2001 by using new panel data on sub-federal tax autonomy. While initial estimations suggest that fiscal decentralization causes lower growth rates, we find that this result is not...