We investigate the empirical relationship between decentralisation and corruption. Using a newly assembled dataset containing data for up to 174 countries, we revisit the empirical evidence and seek to explain some of the inconsistent results that exist in the literature. We find that not only...

Recent aggregate tests of the impact of taxes on long-run growth rates in the OECD countries remain vulnerable to two important criticisms. First, they typically use 'an aggregate average rate, or constructed marginal rate, that probably does not affect the rate that any particular economic...

Growth models contain strong predictions regarding the effect of fiscal policy on the steady state growth path. Fiscal policies have no effect on the steady state growth rate in the neoclassical model whereas fiscal policy does feature in the steady state of endogenous growth models. The number...

Many economic reforms are undertaken at a time of economic crisis. But is this a good time for a country to undertake trade reform? In this paper we investigate whether an economic crisis at the time of trade liberalisation affects a country’s subsequent growth performance. We employ threshold...

This paper highlights the way in which workers of different age and ability are affected by anticipated and unanticipated trade liberalisations. A two-factor (skilled and unskilled labour), two-sector Heckscher-Ohlin trade model is supplemented with a education sector which uses skilled labour...

This study undertakes an empirical investigation of the macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of two forms of regional trade agreements vis-à-vis global trade liberalisation on a small island country, using Fiji as a case study. In order to capture the feedback effects of such a complex set of...