Although pre-electoral political manipulation of the budget --- the political budget cycle (PBC) --- has been long investigated by scholars, empirical findings are mixed at best. This is partly because of the non-random nature of election timing. There also exist ongoing debates over how the...

Cross-country studies have found a negative relationship between income inequality and economic growth. The main problem with the cross-country analyses is the poor quality of the data on income distribution. This paper tests the robustness of the cross-country results to the use of a more...

Taxation has been identified by businesses all over the world as one of the biggest constraints for doing business. The purpose of this handbook is to provide policy makers especially in developing countries with a framework to assess a tax system in its entirety, measure the burden imposed by...

In this paper we test the impact of elections on fiscal policy in Latin American economies in comparison to OECD countries over the period 1990-2006. We find that in Latin American countries, the average primary balance declines by an amount close to 0.7 per cent of GDP during an election year,...

The strong negative link between democracy and output volatility documented by Rodrik (2000) and others stands in sharp contrast to the lack of consensus on the democracy-growth relationship. To explain stable growth performance in democracies we characterize political systems in terms of the...

Most countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region spend a considerable share of their national income on social protection. In Egypt and Jordan, for example, this share ranges between 20 and 25 %. Most of the money, however, is used for social protection instruments that suffer...

We construct a dynamic model of political and economic behavior to examine the impact of variations in term lengths and term limits. Term lengths and term limits alter politicians' time horizons and affect voters' use of elections to attain political accountability and select competent...

Imagine a government confronted with a controversial policy question, like whether it should cut the level of unemployment benefits. Will social welfare rise as a result? Will some groups be winners and other groups be losers? Will the welfare gap between the employed and unemployed increase?...

Polish Abstract: Państwowe fundusze majątkowe – SWF to podmioty, których zadaniem jest zagospodarowywanie rezerw dewizowych krajów wykazujących istotną i trwałą ich nadwyżkę. Ze względu na wpływ rządów na politykę inwestycyjną, SWF łączą w swych strategiach zarówno aspekty...

We present results from a “corruption game” (a dictator game modified so that recipients can take a side payment in exchange for accepting a reduction in the overall size of the pie). Dictators (silently) treated to be able to take more of the recipient’s tokens, took more of them. They...