We investigate the long-run effects of government surveillance on civic capital and economic performance, studying the case of the Stasi in East Germany. Exploiting regional variation in the number of spies and administrative features of the system, we combine a border discontinuity design with...

Since the beginning of detente in the sixties the United States' economic policy toward the Soviet Union has steered a zig-zag course. The latest spectacular step was President Reagan's lift - apparently without an adequate quid pro quo - of the embargo on grain and phosphates imposed by his...

We investigate expectations concerning future job loss in the former German Democratic Republic shortly before the economic, monetary and social union in July 1990. In order to model these expectations, we take detailed account of individual heterogeneity, the availability and interpretation of...