Comment peut-on expliquer que la part des dépenses publiques dans le PNB en temps de paix ait doublé dans plusieurs économies occidentales entre 1910 et 1938? Les dates éloignées de l'introduction du suffrage universel pour les hommes et l'évidence d'un protectionnisme croissant pendant...

Neither democracy nor globalization can explain the doubling of the peacetime public share in many Western countries between World Wars I and II. Here we examine two other explanations that are consistent with the timing of the observed changes, namely, (1) a shift in the demand for public goods...

Between 1700 and 1850, per-capita income doubled in Europe while falling in the rest of Eurasia. Neither geography nor economic institutions can explain this sudden divergence. Here the consequences of differences in communications technology are examined. For the first time, there appeared in...

Earlier studies have explained inter-country variations in the share of GNP devoted to military expenditures by international spillovers and by differences in the threat of attack related to relative incomes. In this paper, we use the theory of public choice to explain these differences. We...

This paper has attempted to explain variations among countries in the tax level, in the importance of progressive taxes and transfers, and in the after-tax share of middle-income groups. Particular attention was paid to the declines in each of these variables which are observable in...