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"We use two micro data sets that collect harmonized data across countries to investigate the effects of regulation on new businesses. We are able to distinguish between two types of entrepreneurs: those who start a business to pursue a business opportunity and those who start a business because they could not find better work. Irrespective of the measure of regulation we use, we always find a detrimental effect of regulation on entrepreneurship. While women are overall less likely to start new businesses, in more regulated countries women are pulled into entrepreneurship not to pursue a business opportunity but because they could not find better work. Moreover, regulation dampens the effects of self-assessed business skills and social networks. In more regulated economies, those with better business skills and those who know other entrepreneurs are less likely to become entrepreneurs to pursue a business opportunity. Tighter regulation also exacerbates fear of failure, further discouraging business start-up. All our estimates point to a negative effect of regulation"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

"We use a micro dataset that collects information across individuals, countries, and time to investigate the determinants of entrepreneurial activity in thirty-seven developed and developing nations. We focus both on individual characteristics and on countries' regulatory differences. We show that individual characteristics, such as gender, age, and status in the workforce are important determinants of entrepreneurship, and we also highlight the relevance of social networks, self-assessed skills, and attitudes toward risk. Moreover, we find that regulation plays a critical role, particularly for those individuals who become entrepreneurs to pursue a business opportunity. The individual characteristics that are impacted most by regulation are those measuring working status, social network, business skills, and attitudes toward risk"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

Using a panel of OECD countries from 1960 to 2002, this paper shows that financial markets value fiscal discipline. Interest rates, particularly those of long-term government bonds, decrease when countries' fiscal position improves and increase around periods of budget deteriorations. Stock market prices surge around times of substantial fiscal tightening and plunge in periods of very loose fiscal policy. In addition, the paper shows that results depend on countries' initial fiscal conditions and on the type of fiscal consolidations. Fiscal adjustments that occur in country-years with high levels of government defcit, that are implemented by cutting government spending, and that generate a permanent and substantial decrease in government debt are associated with larger reductions in interest rates and increases in stock market prices.

This paper studies the determinants and chaIlllels through which fiscal contractions influence the dynamics of the debt-to-GDP ratio and GDP growth. Using data from a panel of OECD countries, the paper shows that the success of fiscal adjustments in decreasing the debt-to-GDP ratio depends on the size of the fiscal contraction and less on its composition. The rate of growth of output matters too, but higher GDP growth does not drive the success of a fiscal stabilization. In contrast, whether a fiscal adjustment is expansionary depends largely on the composition of the fiscal manoeuvre. In particular, stabilizations implemented by cutting public spending lead to higher GDP growth rates. The effects of the composition on growth work mostly through the labor market rather than through agents' expectations of future fiscal policy. Finally, the evidence suggests that successful and expansionary fiscal contractions are not the result of accompanying expansionary monetary policy or exchange rate devaluations.

This paper investigates the effects of fiscal policy on economic activity, welfare, income distribution, and public finances in a dynamic general equilibrium model with a unionized labor market. The paper shows that increases to public employment, wages of public sector employees, unemployment benefits, and labor taxes put pressure on unions' wage claims, leading to higher private sector wages, lower employment and output. The paper also suggests that capitalists benefit from fiscal adjustments, while workers are hurt, especially during the stabilization and in its immediate aftermath. However, both capitalists and workers are better off when the adjustment is achieved by cutting welfare spending and the government wage bill. These types of fiscal consolidations are also the most effective in reducing the primary deficit and public debt.

This paper uses a dynamic general equilibrium model (1) to investigate how changes to different spending & revenue items of the budget affect economic activity & public finance; & (2) to evaluate the welfare costs of alternative fiscal policy maneuvers. The paper shows that, unlike an increase in government purchases of final goods, an increase in public employment & transfers can have a contractional effect on the economy in the same way as a rise in tax rates. It also suggests that fiscal adjustments implemented by cutting spending items increase households' welfare & are more effective in reducing the primary deficit & public debt than are increases in tax rates. 2 Tables, 4 Figures, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.