Followers of law, politics and business commonly relate stories of individuals who appear to predict an expected self-performance level below what they believe likely. Candidates, attorneys and firms sometimes seem to under-predict their own capacities. Insofar as individuals typically construct...

Djankov et al. (2003a) propose and measure for 109 countries in the year 2000 an index of formalism of legal procedure for two simple disputes: eviction of a non-paying tenant and collection of a bounced check. For a sub-sample of 40 countries, we compute this index every year starting in 1950,...

The central questions that this article addresses are: Has there been a significant judicialization of international arbitration in recent years? And is this judicialization really a sign of a loss of attraction for international arbitration? For these purposes, conventional assumptions about...

Economic growth is below what would be needed to resume rapid convergence to average OECD living standards. On-going efforts to improve the business climate are laudable, but need to be widened and strengthened. Much progress has been achieved in reducing red tape, but it is only recently that...

In November 2012, RF Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdiukov, accused of abetting corruption in his ministry, was sacked from office; former Deputy Minister of Regional Development was arrested; criminal proceedings against the managers of Rostelekom and the former top officials of the RF Ministry of...

Research on corruption has made substantial progress in recent years. Yet, most studies still treat corruption as a homogenous phenomenon. This article argues that private-sector corruption can be distinguished conceptually from public-sector corruption, which has been in the spotlight of...

Das Phänomen Geldwäsche hatte bis zu Beginn der 1980er Jahre aus juristischer Sicht keine eigenständige Bedeutung. Erst der immense An­stieg des weltweiten Drogenhandels – insbesondere in Verbindung mit der Organisierten Kriminalität – und der diesbezüglich mangelnde...