Essays in Macroeconomics and Public Finance

To my parents. ii Acknowledgements I am indebted to my chair, Joel Slemrod, for countless hours of discussion and extensive com-ments on many drafts of this dissertation, and for his mentoring throughout the dissertation phase of my degree. Jim Hines and Matthew Shapiro generously made themselves available for numerous discussions that guided my work at key stages. Thanks to Martin Schmalz for his advice in the final phase of this dissertation. I am grateful to the Sasakawa Foundation for providing fellowship support during my first year of graduate study, and to the Department of Economics for awarding me the Robert V. Roosa fellowship, which provided support in my final year of study. Thanks to the Offic