Monetary Budget Constraint and Its Missing Problems

Cut Problems in Graphs with a Budget Constraint

We study budgeted variants of classical cut problems: the Multiway Cut problem, the Multicut problem, and the k-Cut problem, and provide approximation algorithms for these problems. Specifically, for the budgeted multiway cut and the k-cut problems we provide constant factor approximation algorithms. We show that the budgeted multicut problem is at least as hard to approximate as the sparsest c...

Monetary Equilibrium with Missing Markets

Understanding the Soft Budget Constraint

WDI. We express our gratitude to the editor, John McMillan and two anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions. ABSTRACT. We propose a clarification of the notion of a soft budget constraint, a concept widely used in the analysis of socialist, transitional, and market economies. Our interpretation is broad enough to embrace most existing approaches to soft budget constraint phenome...

Aid and the Soft Budget Constraint*

This paper applies the theory of the soft budget constraint to explain some stylized facts regarding the outcomes and practice of international aid, including ineffectiveness, white elephants, and volatility. The soft budget constraint can also make aid counterproductive. Nonetheless, actual aid institutions may be constrained optimal responses to soft budgets and commonly suggested reforms suc...

Federalism and the Soft Budget Constraint

The government's incentives to bail out inefficient projects are determined by the tradeoff between political benefits and economic costs, the latter depending on the decentralization of government. Two effects of federalism are derived: First, fiscal competition among local governments under factor mobility increases the opportunity costs of bailout and thus serves as a commitment device (the ...