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...

Alan Krueger (1999) provides a measure of "raw" labor's share for the US postwar economy based on Mincerian regressions using Census data on individual earnings, schooling, and work experience. He finds that raw labor's share fell by over 8 percent from 1959 through 1996 to under 5 percent of...

The U.S. federal government responded to the financial crisis and recession that began in 2007-08 with unprecedented fiscal stimulus. Passed in February of 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) came with a price tag of $831 billion. Yet the economy has not returned to a path of...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored entities (GSEs) designed to facilitate a secondary market for mortgages. A secondary market makes mortgages more liquid, increasing the available pool of funds for mortgages and the willingness of originators to initiate loans. Since the supply...

We use the Stansel (2013) metropolitan area economic freedom index and 25 conditioning variables to analyze the spatial relationships between institutional quality and economic outcomes across 381 U.S. metropolitan areas. Specifically, we allow for spatial dependence in both the dependent and...

Constitutional scholars emphasize the importance of an enduring, stable constitutional order. North and Weingast (1989) argue that it consistent with credible commitments to sustainable fiscal policies. However, this view is controversial and has received little empirical study. We use...

We offer evidence of the role of continental orientation in the historical diffusion of technologies. Diamond (1997) argued that technologies spread more slowly North-South (N-S) than East-West (E-W) for two reasons. First, it was relatively costly for individuals to transport innovations when...

The income convergence literature suggests that poor countries can catch-up to rich ones conditional on sharing certain characteristics with rich countries. Good institutions such as strong property rights and rule-of-law are key amongst those characteristics. From a policy perspective this is...

We examine the empirical relationship between Internet subscriptions and foreign aid flows for 22 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members for a 15 year time period employing the median voter model. We find that Internet use is positively related to the amount of foreign aid that donor...