This paper investigates the potential of information technologies to improve public service delivery and empower citizens in the context of two unusual randomized natural experiments occurring within one particular bureaucratic process: the renewal of a national identification card by the...

Sexual health problems cause negative externalities from contagious diseases and public expenditure burdens from teenage pregnancies. In a randomized evaluation, we find that an online sexual-health education course in Colombia leads to significant impacts on knowledge and attitudes and, for...

We provide evidence on the link between infrastructure development and the distribution of income for the period 1960-97. We use roads, railways, telecommunications, and energy measures. The approach is comprehensive as individual measures and composite indices are used. Cross-country and panel...

"We provide evidence for Granger causality between rent-seeking behavior and democracy in Uruguay, where both rent-seeking behavior and political shifts have varied widely in the past 80 yr but ethnolinguistic heterogeneity and inequality have remained low. This helps identify "pure"...

According to recent research, external factors are key determinants of capital flows to emerging market countries. They are among the causes of high capital flow volatility that, in turn, leads to high levels of macroeconomic volatility. We postulate that, along with political governance,...

The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive empirical evidence on recent theories that link democracy and income inequality for the period 1960-1997. In simple cross-country regressions I find a non-monotonic link between democracy and inequality when using ordinary least squares,...

This paper fills a void in the issue of determinants of privatization prices by concentrating in one industry across many countries. This has not been done before, as the literature has only focused on (i) many industries in one country, (ii) a single industry in one country, and (iii) many...

Privatization is under attack. Criticisms run from corrupt deals to abuse of market power and social welfare losses. We evaluate the empirical record on privatization relying on recent comprehensive studies from Latin America. There are four main results. First, the increased profitability of...

Language serves two key functions. It enables communication between agents, which allows for the establishment and operation of formal and informal institutions. It also serves a less obvious function, a reassuring quality more closely related to issues linked with trust, social capital, and...