Recent theoretical and empirical research has shown that the type of government has an important impact on governments' incentives to borrow strategically before elections. This article brings together the findings of three studies, respectively by Chang (2008), Saporiti and Streb (2008), and...

The world economy is engulfed in an economic crisis. In an attempt to avert a repetition of the Great Depression, governments across the globe have borrowed heavily to finance fiscal stimulus packages. Rising debt levels have put the credit ratings of many countries, including those in the...

The literature on political budget cycles, i.e. fluctuations in the budget balance during elections, largely assumes governments to be unitary actors. However, in many political systems, political parties share governing responsibility in a coalition. This article examines the intra-coalition...

Recent research has focused on the role of the political and institutional context for the occurrence of political budget cycles, i.e. fluctuations in the budget balance when elections loom. This study turns to the economic factors. A formal model predicts that higher economic volatility...

Governments can finance fiscal expansions with debt to appear competent and boost their electoral prospects, resulting in a political budget cycle. This article shows that economic disturbances blur competence signals, dampening political budget cycles. Economic disturbances can be construed at...

This paper develops a dynamic spatial equlibrium model of Amazon deforestation, accounting for trade and labor markets dynamics. It uses this model to study the impact of local sectoral shocks and policies on deforestation. Conditional on the assumptions on key parameters, the analysis suggests...

This paper investigates cross-sectoral productivity differentials in South African industry and their distributional consequences. The analysis shows that typically, traded sectors have experienced low productivity growth over the past decade, while skill intensive service sectors have had...

Research in management and related fields largely assumes that host-country state (state) ownership in investment projects raises risk for private co-investors. We question that assumption in theorizing that minority state ownership may actually decrease investment risk in host countries where...