Societal theories of trade policy stress the importance of domestic interest groups, whereas statist theories focus on the effects of domestic institutions. Debates over the relative merits of these approaches have been fierce, but little systematic empirical research has been brought to bear on...

This article builds upon the growing literature linking cross-national variation in political institutions to differences in economic outcomes. Specifically, it considers the impact of additional veto points (the executive, unicameral or bicameral legislatures, the judiciary and sub-federal...

Checks and balances that limit the discretion of policy-makers reduce the volatility of government expenditure and revenue. While this assumption is at the heart of a large body of empirical work, the association between political institutions and policy volatility has itself been the focus of...