This article analyzes the determinants of state debt financing-including the composition of government spending and the desire to make intergenerational transfers, as well as a variety of economic, political, and institutional factors. The authors find that a greater proportion of younger voters...

This study empirically tests the "Culture of Spending" hypothesis (Payne, 199la). According to this hypothesis, the longer congressmen stay in office, the more likely they are to support federal spending. Spending behavior in this study is measured by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU)...

This paper develops a methodology for calculating the expected completed lengths of U.S. congressmen's stays in office. In addition, it demonstrates how this methodology can be used to forecast the seniority structure of future Congresses. One of the major empirical findings of this paper is...

This paper examines the quit behaviour of members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. We find that the probability of a member continuing is lower when the member is an economist, when the member comes to the Board from the private sector, and when their policy views differ from the Board...

We document a behavioral idiosyncrasy in which Federal Reserve Bank presidents prefer tighter monetary policy at the end of their tenures. This suggests that consensus building on the Federal Open Market Committee occurs by moderating the policy preferences expressed by the presidents, rather...