This Paper uses a large new panel data set to examine the relationship between elections and fiscal policy. We find clear evidence of political business cycles in macroeconomic policy: spending increases before elections while revenues fall, leading to a larger deficit in election years. We also...

This paper analyzes the importance of strengthening the relationship of accountability between health service providers and citizens for improving access to and quality of health care. How this is to be achieved, and whether it works, however, remain open questions. The paper presents a...

We study signaling equilibria at the IPO when owners determine not only the price at which to sell primary equity but also the amount of investment proceeds to raise. This implies owners have a choice of two signals at the IPO, i.e., investment oriented signaling and underpricing. We show that...

In 2005, China took an important step in its privatisation process by initiating the Split Share Reform, whereby state-owned shares became tradeable. As a consequence, there was a significant rise in private holdings of shares of listed companies which previously had high state ownership. This...