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ABSTRACTA two‐period macroeconomic model where consumption and investment decisions are given microeconomic foundations is presented. The model is used to analyse the effects of both current and anticipated fiscal expansion; careful attention is paid to the implications of the government's intertemporal budget constraint. It is shown that anticipated fiscal expansion may, in certain circumstances, be expansionary. Also, current fiscal expansion, if financed by bonds which are retired through future money creation, may be contractionary.

In this paper a two-period two-good open economy macroeconomic model is constructed. Consumption and money holding decision are based on intertemporal optimization. In the first period (in the 'short-un') some prices are inflexible and Keynesian unemployment occurs. In the second period (in the 'long-run') all prices are flexible and markets clear. The model is used to analyze fiscal policy (paying careful attention to the implications of the government's budget constraint), increased domestic output of a resource (oil) and the consequences of a rise in the world price of the resource.

A model where a dictator decides on both the level of public‐sector capital and whether to democratize is constructed. Under dictatorship the labour market is monopsonistic; democratization involves instituting a competitive labour market. Workers sometimes have a credible threat of revolution and this may affect the dictator's investment decision; it may also induce democratization. The possibility of a 'political development trap', where the dictator stifles development to stay in power, emerges. The model is used, inter alia, to explain the effects of the 1832 Reform Act in the UK and the worldwide positive correlation between income and democracy.