We develop a theoretical framework to examine how government organization affects its power and size. The framework abstracts from distortions that arise from the means of government finance and separates government power into two dimensions--pure coercive power and pure pricing power. A...

"We find that higher stock ownership rates are linked to an upward shift in the Republican share of the House popular vote since the late 1980s, consistent with theories that property interests affect voting. To proxy for discontinuous stock ownership rates, we use equity mutual fund costs,...

Recent headlines tell us U.S. budget deficits have been shrinking in the past few years, but Washington’s fiscal fitness remains a matter of concern.

Discussions of how best to alleviate poverty often center on the relative merits of policies that boost growth and those that promote redistribution. If greater inequality allows economies to expand faster, or if it’s an inevitable consequence of pro-growth measures, the two principles seem...