"Congress financed the American Revolution by issuing paper Continental Dollars. The story of the Continental Dollar is familiar to all -- a lot were issued and hyper-inflation ensued. Emissions were permanently discontinued in 1779. Thereafter, they became worthless and were forgotten. They had...

"One of the most difficult problems in the social sciences is measuring the policy climate in societies. Prior to the 1930s the vast majority of labor regulations in the U.S. were enacted at the state level. In this paper we develop several summary measures of labor regulation that document the...

Unpacking the Saudi state : oil fiefdoms and their clients -- Oil fiefdoms in flux : the new Saudi state in the 1950s -- The emerging bureaucratic order under Faisal -- The 1970s boom : bloating the state and clientelizing society -- The Foreign Investment Act : lost between fiefdoms -- Eluding...