Nomadic conquests have helped to shape world history, yet we know little about why they occurred. Using climate and dynastic data from historical China since 221 BCE, this study finds that the likelihood of nomadic conquest increased with less rainfall proxied by drought disasters, which drove...

The size of nations matters, but the literature on the subject is long on theory and short on direct econometric testing. Using a unique time series data set spanning the past two millennia, we study the process of unification and division in historical China. The empirical results are...

There has been surprisingly little statistical evidence about the effect of patent laws on invention rates in the literature. In this paper, two data sets of major invention counts for the US and 14 Western European countries during 1750-1950 and 1590-1900 respectively are used to assess this...

By calibrating a Solow model augmented by natural resources, this paper offers a simple explanation of the labor scarcity paradox during the process of America's catching up with Britain, which static models have difficulties in accounting for so far.

We model a game to show that the taxation level in an autocracy reflects the state¡¯s coercive power relative to people¡¯s capacity for violence. The model also specifies the mechanisms through which various factors affect relative state power. The model predicts that taxation level...

The ag-biotech industry underwent considerable consolidation in the last decade in part to take advantage of economics of scale and scope. The paper investigates the impact of such consolidation on inventive activity at the firm level. Careful attention is paid to the role of firm size,...

Purpose– This study aims to propose a model-free statistic that tests asymmetric correlations of stock returns, in which stocks move more often with the market when the market goes down than when it goes up, and then empirically analyze the asymmetric correlations of the China stock market and...

This paper introduces a new incomplete index and establishes a new optimal hedging model. We find that when the market micro-noise is perfectly negatively correlated with the return of futures market, market incompleteness depends on the relative level of noise volatility. Especially when noise...

China provides an interesting case study of civil conflict because of her long history and rich records. Using a unique dynastic panel dataset for north China during 25-1911 CE, this study finds that severe famines and dynastic age were positively correlated with peasant uprisings, whereas...