We posit a rational choice model of dictatorship to explain the tendency of dictators to repress innocent citizens. This model demonstrates that, when the quality of information about regime enemies is low, a rational dictator will knowingly kill and imprison citizens who are not real enemies....

We use unique archival data on the allocation of vehicles, i.e. cars and trucks, in the 1930s by a three-person commission of top Soviet officials for an empirical investigation of resource allocation by a dictatorship. Two distinct models of dictatorial allocative behavior, namely, an economic...

This paper examines the effects of shortages on the demand for money of Soviet citizens. It is the first to examine the demand for money in a centrally planned economy using cross-section data in which alternatives to income and interest rates are used to explain money demand. We find demand for...