Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper tests R. J. Barro's (1979) tax-smoothing hypothesis and N. G. Mankiw's (1987) revenue-smoothing hypothesis using quarterly data for four countries--Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The tests are conducted using recent advances in the theory of integrated regressors, the single-equation approach (with the time series properties of the data imposed in estimation and hypothesis testing) as well as the multiequation VAR approach, which treats all variables as part of a joint process. There is considerable evidence for tax-smoothing (and inflation-smoothing) but none for revenue-smoothing. Copyright 1999 by Royal Economic Society.