This paper studies how comparative advantage and the political elites endowments shape long-run performance in an economy with imperfect political institutions. In a capital-scarce economy, an autocrat catering to the needs of landowners favors openness to trade at an early stage of development,...

This paper studies how comparative advantage and the political elites' endowments shape long-run performance in an economy with imperfect political institutions. In a capital-scarce economy, an autocrat catering to the needs of landowners favours openness to trade at an early stage of...

Recent papers use sector-specific factor models with mobile labor to show that imperfect property rights can be a source of comparative advantage. In these models, weaker property rights to the specific factor in a sector attract the mobile factor and increase the country's comparative advantage...

In recent years, emerging East Asian economies have experienced large capital inflows-especially a surge in portfolio inflows-and an appreciation of asset prices such as equities, land, and both nominal and real exchange rates. The paper reviews why a surge in capital inflows can increase asset...

The international transactions accounts provide information on trade in goods and services (including the balance of payments and the balance of trade), investment income, and government and private financial flows. In addition, the accounts measure the value of U.S. international assets and...

Using a unique confidential data set with industry disaggregation of official U.S. claims and liabilities, we find that dollar-denominated securities are increasingly inter-mediated by tax havens financial centers (THFC) and by less regulated funds. These securities are risky and respond to tax...