Parochial politics is typically associated with poor leadership and low levels of public good provision. This paper explores the possibility that community involvement in politics need not necessarily worsen governance and, indeed, can be efficiency-enhancing when the context is appropriate....

A substantial body of theoretical and empirical evidence demonstrates that interregional competition for factors of production leads to convergence of per capita output. Is there an analogous process that leads to convergence of public sector activity? Skidmore, et al (2004) develop a model that...

Advertisements provide consumers with knowledge about private products, whereas political information is required to provide voters with knowledge of public issues. Modern information technologies and globalisation are increasing the exposure of individuals to information. Goods advertising is...

This lecture, given to the Society of Government Economists in January 1995, examines the influence of research on policy and vice versa using three widely believed propositions. The first is that government spending is wasteful or ineffective and can readily be cut back in order to reduce the...

The market metaphor of intergovernmental choice as a spur to efficiency (formalized by Charles M. Tiebout) is often invoked to support the shift away from Washington and toward the states. But the model translates badly to governments; governmental entry and exit is costly. Public-sector...

[Joseph Stiglitz was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993-95, and chairman of the CEA from 1995 through February 1997.] Today, I want to share with you some of my thoughts about the possibilities and limitations of government. These thoughts are focused around a simple...

This paper attempts to present an analysis of the economic and fiscal dimensions of Puerto Rican status. The status debate in Puerto Rico has, historically, been heavily concentrated in political analysis of the status options: commonwealth, statehood and independence. The document's key...

We hypothesize that the failure of government to protect the rights of individuals from violence committed by youths has led to the formation of youth gangs as protective agencies. Our theory predicts an opposite direction of causality between gang activity and violent crime from what is widely...

In this paper, we study how the privatization and deregulation of intermediate goods industries influence capital accumulation. Our model is solved under three alternative scenarios: (i) the intermediate sector is composed of a public monopoly under government control; (ii) the intermediate...

Veto institutions are often dominated by government opponents with rival electoral and policy interests (e.g. \divided government"). I investigate the tradeoff between policy control and policy blockade when both the government and the veto party may cater to opposing special interests. The...