We use US county level data (3,058 observations) from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and the extent of government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. We find that increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively...

Measuring labor's share of an economy's aggregate income seems straightforward, at least in principle. Count up wage and salary income, along with the value of benefits provided to employees, and divide it by total income. However, one fundamental concept of labor's share in macroeconomic theory...

A roving bandit provides exclusive (rivalrous) collective goods to members of its in- group. A stationary bandit further provides inclusive (nonrivalrous; public) collective goods to the out-group. The inclusive goods are an input to the production of the exclusive goods enjoyed by the in-group....

The income convergence literature suggests that poor countries or regions can catch-up to rich ones conditional on sharing certain characteristics with rich countries or regions. Good institutions such as strong property rights and rule-of-law are key among those characteristics. Globalization...

The Great Enrichment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries involved unprecedented increases in standards of living across Europe and its offshoots. (Conservatively, the increases were generally by a factor of between 30 and 45.) Deirdre McCloskey (2006, 2010, 2016) argues that by far the...

We examine a panel of 70 countries during 1966-2010 and utilize Reinhart and Rogoff crisis dates to estimate the effects of crises on the size and scope of government over both 5-year and 10-year horizons. We also estimate cross-section regressions using 40-year (1970-2010) changes in government...

How do a government arise from anarchy? In a classic article, Mancur Olson (1993) theorized that it could occur when a roving bandit decides to settle down. This stationary bandit comes to recognize an encompassing interest in its territory, improving its lot by providing governing and...