Who becomes a top politician in China? We focus on provincial leaders, a pool of candidates for top political office, and examine how their chance of being promoted depends on performance - measured by provincial economic growth - and connections with top politicians - measured by past joint...

Who becomes a top politician in China? We focus on provincial leaders a pool of candidates for top political office and examine how their chances of promotion depend on their performance in office and connections with top politicians. Our empirical analysis, based on the curriculum vitae of...

This paper investigates the long-run development of China's treaty ports from the mid-eighteenth century until today. Focusing on a sample of prefectures on the coast or on the Yangtze River, I document the dynamic development paths of treaty ports and their neighbors in alternate phases of...

Does production technology adoption affect conflict? This paper studies this question with yearly historical data on weather, peasant revolts and the diffusion of sweet potatoes in China between 1470 and 1900. It shows that droughts increased peasant revolts by about 10% whereas the effect of...

The postwar neoclassical theory of normative public finance has been written from a Pigovian perspective. It addresses questions about optimal taxation and allocation of public goods from the perspective of a benevolent social planner. This field of research has produced many important...

Economic policymaking in modern democracies generates a great deal of special-interest politics. In policy areas such as finance, trade policy, and regulation, policy decision create benefits for well-defined groups with the cost borne by society at large. Given the difficulties with the...