We study the relationship between average inflation and inflation uncertainty in Mexico from 1960-1997. Friedman (1977) and Ball(1992) propose models where higher inflation creates increased uncertainty, whereas Cukierman & Meltzer (1986) and Cukierman (1992) argue that an apportunistic Central...

We examine the effect of different exchange rate regimes on the economic behavior of 16 developing countries during 1997. While current account deficits predict well the subsequent degree of currency depreciation, holding constant the deficit, the exchange rate regime in place at the beginning...

Governments of rich nations tend to have high fiscal capacity while being credibly limited in their use of revenues (Johnson and Koyama 2017). This poses a puzzle. A government powerful enough to effectively enforce property rights under the rule of law is also powerful enough to prey upon the...

The US sugar program has long delivered significant subsidies to a concentrated group of sugar growers at the expense of American consumers. In 2013, however, an amendment in the House of Representatives attempted to seriously reduce those subsidies. The amendment narrowly lost. A similar...

We adapt the model of McGuire & Olson (1996), creating a rotating bandit model to investigate the economic effects of a polity consisting of a regularly changing autocrat with an encompassing interest but a finite time horizon. We apply our model by studying the relationship between electoral...

The CIA intervened regularly in Latin America politics during the Cold War, in some cases going as far as bringing about regime change. We study the economic, political, and civil society effects of CIA-sponsored regime change in five Latin American countries and find that these actions caused...