Power at Sea: A Naval Power Dataset, 1865–2011

Naval power is a crucial element of state power, yet existing naval data sets are limited to a small number of states and ship types. Here we present 147 years of naval data on all the world’s navies from 1865 to 2011. This country-year data set focuses on warships with ship-based weapons capable of using kinetic force to inflict damage on other structures or peoples. After identifying a country’s active naval forces, we create a measure of naval power based on the aggregate tonnage of the active ships. Additionally, we create count variables for ship types such as aircraft carriers or battleships. This article introduces the country-year data, describes variables of interests for use in country-year, dyadic, or systemic studies, and suggests potential questions of interest scholars could explore using the naval power data set.     

The Impact of Fiscal Illusion on Housing Values: An Australian Test of the Debt Illusion Hypothesis

The debt illusion hypothesis holds that taxpayers may underestimate the present discounted value of future tax liabilities under debt finance. The empirical question arises as to whether debt illusion at the local government level can affect housing values. This proposition is evaluated by investigating whether local fiscal variables are fully capitalized into housing values by means of a pooled time-series, cross-sectional analysis of twenty-seven metropolitan municipalities in Sydney, Australia, for the period 1989 to 1991. The results indicate that municipal debt is under-capitalized into housing values and, accordingly, suggests that local government expenditure may be systematically biased upwards.