Data published by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office show that over the last fifty years expenditures for infrastructure�s operations and maintenance (O&M) have roughly equalled those for new capital. We use this dataset to investigate the productive impact of public...

This paper develops and estimates a stochastic general equilibrium model with capital maintenance, which affects endogenously the depreciation rate of capital. The estimate of maintenance series is found to track survey-based measures for Canada quite closely and to generate the procyclical...

In this paper we estimate the single-factor Consumption Capital Asset Pricing Model (C-CAPM) over the frequency domain. We modify the standard two-step methodology (Fama and French, 1992) to account for the spectral properties of consumption risk and we find that its lower frequencies explain up...

This paper looks at the empirical consequences of introducing endogenous capital depreciation in the standard neoclassical model with quadratic adjustment costs. To this end, we formulate an empirical specification that accommodates capital maintenance and utilization in the Euler equations for...

Foreign aid flows have increased considerably during the last decades, targeting, apart from development objectives, goals related to democracy. In this paper we investigate whether aid has affected the political regime of recipient countries. To this end, we use annual data on Net Official...

Received wisdom suggests that �excessive� wages, defined as the part of real wages that do not follow labour productivity developments, are adversely associated with the return on capital. This paper argues that excessive wages and profits...

This paper advances the hypothesis that the intensity of status preferences depends negatively on the average wealth of society (endogenous dynamic status effect), in accordance with empirical evidence. Our theory replicates the contradictory historical facts of an increasing saving rate along...

This paper advances the hypothesis that the intensity of status preferences depends negatively on the average wealth of society (endogenous dynamic status effect), in accordance with empirical evidence. Our theory replicates the contradictory historical facts of an increasing saving rate along...