Economics and Politics: Introduction to the Literature and Basic Modeling of Political Macroeconomics

Abstract

This is a survey of the literature linking economics and politics. In the introduction, I explain why it is necessary to study these issues as a separate course in economics. I then proceed to analyze voting models, the political business cycle and international and foreign policy issues. The survey relies on, takes excerpts from and paraphrases much of the work put forth in Alesina (1988), Alesina and Rosenthal (1995), Alesina and Roubini (1992), Alesina Roubine and Cohen (1992), Blomberg and Cohen (1996), Blomberg and Hess (1996) and Hess and Orphanides (1995).

JEL Classification: H1, H5, H8