While poorer countries have a much smaller public sector and correspondingly a smaller tax burden than richer countries, their economic performance has not been necessarily better. This paper discusses the role that institutional quality plays in determining government's effectiveness in...

The earnings of truck drivers fell by 21% between 1973 and 1995. Using Current Population Survey data, the authors find that deregulation accounted for one-third of the decline in drivers' wages, with a larger negative effect for non-union workers. Economic forces that broadly affected the...

This paper discusses the process of agricultural liberalization in Zambia. The central argument is that maize markets have been more quickly and fully liberalized than maize input markets because the perceived political risks of liberalizing input markets are greater than those of liberalizing...

This paper highlights some of the contradictions and idiosyncrasies of agricultural market liberalization in Africa through the case study of Tanzania. Based on qualitative research and survey data collected in the country in 1995--96, this article suggests that one of the results of economic...

In an economy with wage‐setting unions where the government has gains from redistribution, we analyse the incentive of incumbent politicians to implement monetary discipline (e.g. by joining a monetary union) against the adoption of fiscal reforms, or deregulation in product markets. We show...