Authors:

  • David Scharfstein
  • Samuel Hanson
  • Adi Sunderam

Excerpt

Fiscal Risk and the Portfolio of Government Programs. Samuel G. Hanson, David S. Scharfstein, Adi Sunderam, June 2014, Paper. "This paper proposes a new approach to social cost-benefit analysis using a model in which a benevolent government chooses risky projects in the presence of market failures and tax distortions. The government internalizes market failures and therefore perceives project payoffs differently than do individual private actors. This gives it a "social risk management" motive—projects that generate social benefits are attractive, particularly if those benefits are realized in bad economic states..." Link