Using an extensive dataset covering all Portuguese local governments (308), this paper analyzes the determinants of municipal deficits and debt. The results clearly indicate the existence of a political budget cycle, but there is no evidence that fiscal policy is used strategically to condition...

Durante as últimas décadas, vários países empreenderam reformas no sentido de descentralizar as atividades do Estado, atribuindo maior responsabilidade e autonomia aos governos locais e regionais. De 1995 a 2009, o peso das despesas realizadas por estes níveis de governo no total da despesa...

In this paper we study the repurchasing behavior of individual investors and identify several characteristics (stock- and investor-specific) that affect the preference for repurchasing stocks previously owned. Using a unique database of 5,128 individual investors trading from August 1st, 2003 to...

We examine how the reduction in information asymmetry brought about by the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) affects the adverse selection costs of issuing equity at home and abroad. In particular, we examine whether there has been a reduction in the costs of raising...

This paper tests the joint hypotheses that policymakers engage in fiscal policy opportunism and that voters respond by rewarding that opportunism with higher vote margins. Furthermore, it investigates the impact of fiscal illusion on the previous two dimensions. Empirical results, obtained with...

In this article, we focus on the consequences of quorum requirements for turnout in referendums. We use a rational choice, decision theoretic voting model to demonstrate that participation quorums change the incentives some electors face, inducing those who oppose changes in the status quo and...

We use simulation methods in an expected utility maximization framework to analyze a farmer`s optimal resource allocation in the presence of government payments, decoupled and not. This framework is extended to incorporate the optimal choice of investment levels in the presence of credit...

We use a large sample of Kansas Farm Management Association farms for eight different crop/practice combinations (dryland and irrigated corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat)for 1994 through 2006 to evaluate the determinants of relative yield performance and explore the ability of financial...

This paper empirically analyzes the political, institutional and economic sources of public deficit volatility. Using the system-GMM estimator for linear dynamic panel data models and a sample of 125 countries analyzed from 1980 to 2006, we show that higher public deficit volatility is typically...

Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that fluctuation in exchange rates may have strong reallocation effects. Accession to the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, and then to the European Monetary Union em 1999, implied a drastic change in the behavior of Portugal´s exchange rate...