CAPOPEN: Legal capital market openness (the existence or absence of capital controls) from Quinn 1997. This measure uses the IMF's Annual Reports on Capital Exchange Restrictions to assess the severity of a nation's restrictions on the payment and receipts of capital. This measure ranges from 0 to 4 where 4 indicates fully free payment and receipts of capital.

CORPTAX/PROF: Ratio of corporate income taxes to net operating surplus of domestic producers (profits) (From Swank 1998b).

CURRACCT: The current account balance as a percentage of GDP. Negative numbers indicate a current account deficit (OECD Statistical Compendium, various years).

ELECTION: A 0–1 dummy variable, coded 1 for an election during that month and 0 for no election (Swank 1998b).

ERCHANGE: Monthly change in the nominal trade-weighted effective exchange rate (Datastream [electronic publication]).

GCAPITAL/GDP: Government capital spending as a percentage of GDP (World Bank,World Development Indicators, various years, CD-ROM).

GCONSUMPTION/GDP: Total government consumption spending as a percentage of GDP (OECD Statistical Compendium, various years).

GOODS/GDP: Government spending on goods and services as a percentage of GDP (World Bank, World Development Indicators, various years, CD-ROM).

GOVBAL: The general government budget balance as a percentage of GDP, where a negative number indicates a deficit (OECD 1997).

GOVDEBT: The ratio of government debt to GDP, where larger numbers indicate larger debt shares. The OECD definition of debt/GDP ratios, which includes all levels of government, as well as social security liabilities, differs slightly from the European Commission's (Maastricht Treaty) definition (OECD 1997).