This paper exploits differences in the proportion of Russian settlers in the North Caucasus in the nineteenth century to estimate the effect of colonization on long-term development. The identification strategy relies on the fact that the primary purpose of Russian colonization was to protect...

Why are some business lobbies less benign in their external effects than others? In The rise and decline of nations (New Haven: Yale University Press, <CitationRef CitationID="CR44">1982</CitationRef>), Mancur Olson proposed that less-encompassing groups—i.e., those whose constituents collectively represent a relatively narrow range of...</citationref>