1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910703320203321

Autore

Rogoff Kenneth

Titolo

Elections and Macroeconomic Policy Cycles / / Kenneth Rogoff, Anne Sibert

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass, : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1986

[Washington, D.C.] : , : [Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System], , [1985]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white);

Collana

NBER working paper series ; no. w1838

Altri autori (Persone)

SibertAnne

Soggetti

Elections - Economic aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

February 1986.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-36).

Sommario/riassunto

There is an extensive empirical literature on political business cycles, but its theoretical foundations are grounded in pre-rational expectations macroeconomic theory. Here we show that electoral cycles in taxes, government spending and money growth can be modeled as an equilibrium signaling process. The cycleis driven by temporary information asymmetries which can arise if, for example,the government has more current information on its performance in providing for national defense. Incumbents cheat least when their private informationis either extremely favorable or extremely unfavorable. An exogenous increase in the incumbent partyts popularity does not necessarily imply a damped policy cycle.