In 1990 Colombia replaced its traditional system of severance payments with a new system of severance payments savings accounts (SPSAs). Although severance payments often are justified on the grounds that they provide insurance against earnings loss, they also increase costs for employers and...

Evans has argued that the federal budget deficit in the United States does not influence the real rate of interest. Indeed, Evans (1985, p. 85) goes so far as to claim that “in over a century of U.S. history, large deficits have never been associated with high interest rate”. By contrast,...