Following the Great Recession, many European countries implemented fiscal consolidation policies aimed at reducing government debt. Using three independent data sources and three different empirical approaches, we document a strong positive relationship between higher income inequality and...

This dissertation consists of six self-contained chapters that are related to the behavior of firms and politicians in a broader sense. After an introduction to the topic, the first part of the dissertation elaborates on how institutional and political framework conditions influence the behavior...

The issue of fiscal imbalance has become central to the current economic debate. A diagnostic Brazilian fiscal problem emphasizes that the rise in primary expenditure stems from "structural" factors, due to the growth of social security spending and social programs, resulting from the 1988...