Legislatures and government spending: evidence from democratic countries.

In this paper we study the relationship between legislature size with respect to general government and welfare spending. According to the theory, legislature size has an indefinite effect on government spending because logrolling and transaction costs have canceling effects. Bicameralism is expected to have a negative effect because of the increased transaction cost of finding a viable majority in two houses with different constituencies. We use a cross-section of 75 countries over the period 1990-1998 controlling for some institutional features that differ among countries. We find that both legislature size and bicameralism do not have a significant effect on the two types of spending.legislature size; bicameralism; interest groups; government spending

Bringing Macroeconomics into the Lab

This paper reviews experiments in macroeconomics, pointing out the theoretical justifications, the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. We identify two broad classes of experiments: general equilibrium and partial equilibrium experiments, and emphasize the idea of theory testing that is behind these. A large number of macroeconomic issues have been analyzed in the laboratory spanning from monetary economics to fiscal policy, from international trade and finance, to growth and macroeconomic imperfections. In a large number of cases results give support to the theories tested. We also highlight that experimental macroeconomics has increased the number of tools available to experimentalists.macroeconomics, experiments.

Bringing Macroeconomics into the Lab.

This paper reviews experiments in macroeconomics, pointing out the theoretical justifications, the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. We identify two broad classes of experiments: general equilibrium and partial equilibrium experiments, and emphasize the idea of theory testing that is behind these. A large number of macroeconomic issues have been analyzed in the laboratory spanning from monetary economics to fiscal policy, from international trade and finance, to growth and macroeconomic imperfections. In a large number of cases results give support to the theories tested. We also highlight that experimental macroeconomics has increased the number of tools available to experimentalists.Macroeconomics; experiments

The quest for a fiscal rule: Italy, 1861-1998

The Italian fiscal history is characterised by a number of fiscal consolidations. In this paper we characterise fiscal policy in terms of non-linear deterministic processes. We find that government spending and taxes can be described as being non-linear trend stationary processes instead of unit roots. A long run equilibrium relationship - a non-linear co-trend - does exist between the two series, fulfilling the intertemporal government budget constraint. We interpret this result as evidence of a long run fiscal rule that different policy makers have adopted, putting public finance in balance.taxes, government expenditure, intertemporal government budget constraint, non-linear trend stationarity, non-linear co-trending

Effects of concavity on the motion of a body immersed in a Vlasov gas

We consider a body immersed in a perfect gas, moving under the action of a constant force $E$ along the $x$ axis . We assume the gas to be described by the mean-field approximation and interacting elastically with the body. Such a dynamic was studied in previous papers In these studies the asymptotic trend showed no sensitivity whatsoever to the shape of the object moving through the gas. In this work we investigate how a simple concavity in the shape of the body can affect its asymptotic behavior; we thus consider the case of hollow cylinder in three dimensions or a box-like body in two dimensions. We study the approach of the body velocity $V (t)$ to the limiting velocity $V_{\infty}$ and prove that, under suitable smallness assumptions, the approach to equilibrium is $| V_{\infty}-V(t)| \approx C t^{-3}$ both in two or three dimensions, being $C$ a positive constant. This approach is not exponential, as typical in friction problems, and even slower than for the simple disk and the convex body in $\mathbb{R}^2$ or $\mathbb{R}^3$

Semi-Markov models and motion in heterogeneous media

In this paper we study continuous time random walks (CTRWs) such that the holding time in each state has a distribution depending on the state itself. For such processes, we provide integro-differential (backward and forward) equations of Volterra type, exhibiting a position dependent convolution kernel. Particular attention is devoted to the case where the holding times have a power-law decaying density, whose exponent depends on the state itself, which leads to variable order fractional equations. A suitable limit yields a variable order fractional heat equation, which models anomalous diffusions in heterogeneous media

Legislature and Constituency Size in Italian Regions: Forecasting the Effects of a Reform

In this paper we analyze the effect of different legislature and constituency size on per capita regional expenditure in Italy. According to the theory, legislature size has an indefinite effect on government spending because logrolling and transaction costs may have canceling effects. In turn, smaller constituency size is predicted to decrease government spending, because of homogeneity of interests and low monitoring costs. We find a large and significantly positive effect of the number of legislators and a negative effect for constituency size. We use these findings to forecast the effects of the increase in the number of legislators that are occurring in some regionsLegislature size, constituency size, regional expenditure

Fiscal Policy and the Banking System in Italy. Have Taxes, Public Spending and Banks been Procyclical in the Long-Run?

This paper analyses the relations between the banking system fluctuations, on one hand, and taxation and public spending, on the other one, using a VECM methodology. We find some evidence of prociclicality of fiscal policy using variables such as government spending, taxes, and primary surplus. Effects in the opposite direction are much smaller. Results are quite stable over time.credit cycles, fiscal policy, procyclicality

Further Evidence on Convergence across Italian Regions

In the last decade the issue of convergence across states and regions has received a great deal of attention both on the theoretical and empirical ground. On the empirical ground different specifications lead to different results and their robustness is also questioned. We review both neoclassical and endogenous growth theories and the evidence on international and Italian data. We use a methodology that enhances the power of the estimates proposed by Evans and Karras (Journal of Monetary Economics, 1996) that uses panel data and test for their stochastic properties. Data cover the time-span 1951-1998. We find evidence of conditional convergence.