We examine the relationship between different dimensions of the political regime in place and human capital using a two-step structural equation model. In the first step, we employ factor analysis on 16 human capital indicators to construct two new human capital measures (basic and advanced...

Until recently, most research on political budget cycles was based on the (often implicit) presumption that these cycles do not differ across countries. However, more recent studies focus on heterogeneity. This paper surveys studies examining the factors conditioning the occurrence and strength...

This paper addresses two empirical questions. Is fiscal policy affected by upcoming elections? If so, do election-motivated fiscal policies enhance the probability of re-election of the incumbent? Employing data for 65 democratic countries over 1975–2005 in a semi-pooled panel model, we find...

This paper examines whether financial crises affect the likelihood that a central bank governor will be replaced. Employing a conditional fixed effects logit model for 101 countries during the period 1970–2007, we find that financial crises significantly increase the likelihood of a central...

type="main" xml:id="geer12022-abs-0001" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>I review research on the relationship between democracy and government indebtedness. I first discuss whether the extent to which politicians use fiscal policy for reelection purposes is conditioned by a country's experience with democracy....</p>

This paper investigates which factors determine whether sudden stops in international capital flows are followed by a currency crash using data for 85 economies in the period 1980–2012. An event study approach is used for an 11-year window around the crises for nine potential explanatory...

This paper examines the driving forces of China's contracted engineering projects in Africa. Using data on contracted engineering projects in 52 African countries over the period 1991–2010, three groups of hypotheses are tested: (1) economic motives; (2) political ties between China and Africa;...

We analyze how budgetary institutions affect government budget deficits in member states of the European Union during 1984–2003 employing new indicators provided by Hallerberg et al. (<CitationRef CitationID="CR21">2009</CitationRef>). Using panel fixed effects models, we examine whether the impact of budgetary institutions on budget...</citationref>

We investigate whether leading indicators of currency crises differ across exchange rate regimes using data for 88 countries in the period 1981–2010. Our estimates suggest that in fixed exchange rate regimes external indicators, such as deviations of the real exchange rate from trend and the...