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Category Archives: E6

Understanding the Argentine Peso’s Devaluation in 2014 —Analysis on Argentina’s Fiscal Sustainability from 1993 to 2013

By Feng Pan

This research analyzes the fiscal sustainability of Argentina from 1993 to 2013. Specifically, it explains the peso devaluation in early 2014 and suggests that it is primarily due to the fundamental problems in Argentina’s economy. This paper highlights Argentina’s inability to enhance its fiscal conditions and suggests possible future economic developments in Argentina. This paper concludes that there is high
chance of hyperinflation, debt default, and the eventual dissolution of the managed exchange rate regime in Argentina in the future.

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Advisor: Alison Hagy, Craig Burnside | JEL Codes: E43, E44, E52, E58, E62, F31 | Tagged: Argentine Peso, Exchange Rate, Fiscal Sustainability

The Economic Effects of Military and Non-Military Government Spending

By Patrick Royal

There has been substantial investigation into the influence of government spending in general on economic growth, unemployment, and inequality, but relatively little investigation into the relative effects of different types of spending.  This thesis attempts to separate the influence of military and non-military government spending on the economy.  As with many such investigations, it focuses on a single economy – that of the United States.  The results indicate that, dollar for dollar, military spending is just as effective as non-military spending at affecting unemployment, but much more effective at promoting short-term growth.  Neither type of spending has a strong impact on income inequality, suggesting that the primary determinants of that are not related to government spending.

Honor’s Thesis

Data Set

Advisor: Craig Burnside | JEL Codes: E1, E12, E62 | Tagged: Government Spending, Growth, Military

Fiscal Multicointegration and Sustainability in OECD Economics

By Rajlakshmi De

Policies surrounding government expenditures and revenues are often concerned with the size of the national public debt and whether it is sustainable or unsustainable by employing the multi-cointegration framework and assertion corresponding criteria for sustainability. Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Portugal, and Austria are found to exhibit sustainable fiscal policies during the paper’s sample period, whereas the policies of the United States, Italy, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain, and Japan are determined to be unsustainable.

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Advisor: Kent Kimbrough, Lori Leachman | JEL Codes: E6, E61, E62, E66 | Tagged: Fiscal, Multicointegration, Sustainability

Federal Outlays: The Effect of the President and Electoral Politics

By Michael Ge

The effect of congressional electoral politics on pork barrel spending is a well -studied phenomenon.
Likewise, presidential politics are receiving increased scrutiny. This paper aims to expand the
literature relating presidential electoral politics and the geographic distribution of federal funds on a
county level. It asks whether there is increased spending in the electorally-important counties in the
electorally-important states during and after a presidential elections. Results show that there are in
fact links between electoral importance and federal funding levels. However, results do not show a
trend in those results over different elections.

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Advisor: Marjorie McElroy | JEL Codes: A12, D72, E62, H50, H61 | Tagged: Distributive Politics, Pork Barrel, Presidential Elections, US Federal Budget

Questions?

Undergraduate Program Assistant
Matthew Eggleston
dus_asst@econ.duke.edu

Director of the Honors Program
Michelle P. Connolly
michelle.connolly@duke.edu