This paper provides a critical survey of the literature on politico-institutional determinants of the government budget. We organize our discussion around two questions: Why did certain OECD countries, but not others, accumulate large public debts? Why did these fiscal imbalances appear in the...

This paper successfully tests on a sample of 70 countries for the period 1960-85 the following hypotheses. Income inequality, by fueling social discontent, increases socio-political instability. The latter, by creating uncertainty in the politico-economic environment, reduces investment. As a...

Nous appuyant sur une analyse des textes theacute;oriques et empiriques disponibles, nous estimons que le processus et les institutions budgeacute;taires influencent effectivement les reacute;sultats budgeacute;taires. Nous incluons dans les institutions budgeacute;taires aussi bien les regrave;gles...