This paper evaluates the effects of fiscal policy on investment using a panel of OECD countries. We find a sizeable negative effect of public spending—and in particular of its wage component—on profits and on business investment. This result is consistent with different theoretical models in...

In all industrial countries, fiscal policy is increasingly about redistribution. In this paper, the authors study redistribution across different types of agents in a world characterized by the presence of labor unions and distortionary taxation. They show that an increase in transfers financed...

This paper successfully tests on a sample of 70 countries for the period 1960-85 the following hypotheses. Income inequality, by fueling social discontent, increases socio-political instability. The latter, by creating uncertainty in the politico-economic environment, reduces investment. As a...

We document that variations in government purchases generate a rise in consumption, the real and the product wage, and a fall in the markup. This evidence is robust across alternative empirical methodologies used to identify innovations in government spending (structural VAR vs. narrative...

Economists, policy-makers, and the media often argue that the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact make it difficult for governments of EMU countries to stabilize their economies with appropriate fiscal policy and to provide adequate public investment. Our empirical analysis...

This paper investigates the relationship between income distribution, democratic institutions, and growth. It does so by addressing three main issues: the properties and reliability of the income distribution data, the robustness of the reduced form relationship between income distribution and...

Based on structural VAR evidence for the U.S., we document that a rise in government spending generates three facts: (1) an appreciation of the terms of trade; (2) a fall in the price of traded vs. non-traded goods (proxied by the price of goods relative to services), and (3) a positive co-movement...

The rules that govern the budget process are important determinants of fiscal outcomes, with potentially important macroeconomic implications. This paper starts with a review of the theoretical underpinnings of the effects of budget processes and the main empirical evidence. After a brief...