This paper presents estimates of the effects that terms of trade volatility has on growth of real gross domestic product per capita. Based on five-year non-overlapping panel data comprising 175 countries during 1980-2010, the paper finds that: (i) in model specifications that do not include...

I examine whether action-based fiscal consolidations are exogenous to contemporaneous GDP growth. Based on the narrative record, these fiscal consolidations had the primary objective to reduce a budget deficit. I find that temperature changes, the GDP growth rate of trading partners, and an...

In 2009 the Australian government delivered approximately $8 billion in direct payments to households. These payments were pre- announced and randomly allocated to households based on postal codes over a 5-week period. We exploit this random allocation to estimate the causal response of...