Alberto Alesina: The Science of Using Political Economy Concepts to Explain the Macroeconomic Landscape

Alberto Alesina is distinguished for having introduced, or more properly re-introduced, political economy considerations into macroeconomic policy analysis. His seminal contributions to the problems of fiscal consolidation and the optimal size and number of nations (or the possibility that nations or economic unions might find it in their interest to break-up) are as relevant today as ever. They are reviewed here, and set in a debt targeting framework that allows them to be deployed to maximum advantage. Copyright International Atlantic Economic Society 2012