This paper revises the traditional view of Spain as a predatorycolonial state that extracted revenue from natural resources andpopulations in the Americas while offering little in return. Using 18thcentury Spanish American treasury accounts we show that localelites not only exerted important...

The nineteenth century saw the advent of news agencies that became well-coordinated global organisations with large networks of correspondents, such as Reuters, Havas, Wolff-Continental and Associated Press. Essential features of these agencies were substantial fixed and sunk set-up costs, high...

We propose a distinction between active waste and passive waste as determinantsof the cost of public services. Active waste entails utility for the publicdecision maker (as in the case of bribery) whereas passive waste does not (asin the case of inefficiency due to red tape). To assess the...

[...]Importantly, these studies rely entirely on ex post analysis.In other words, the studies ask, Given the actual inflationoutcome, did the costs of TIPS issuances exceed the costs ofnominal Treasury issuances of similar durations? Thisapproach depends on the actual inflation outcome, which...

[...]We observe several trends in payment timing from 1998 to2006. After 2000, the peak in payment activity shifts to laterin the day. Indeed, post-2000, a greater concentration ofpayments occurs after 17:00. At the same time, however, severalfactors have been associated with increased payment...