We analyze the dynamics of Chinese comparative advantage as measured by export shares and the Balassa index using 3-digit and 4-digit sectors for the period 1970 – 1997. We use novel tools to identify periods of rapid structural change and the persistence of comparative advantage, such as...

With a self-constructed, unique historical data set for 240 counties that spans over centuries, this paper uses the ‘quasi-natural experiment' of capital relocation in 1421, during China's Ming Dynasty, as an exogenous shock to study the relationship between political governance and urban...

The emergence and growth of cities are shaped by both geographical features and institutional factors. We are able to analyze their interplay at different levels of the urban hierarchy by exploiting a unique data set on cities in imperial China from 221 BCE to 1911 CE, a geographically diverse...

While philanthropy is seen as a critical instrument for wealth redistribution in countries with low state capacity or weak welfare institutions, there is little empirical evidence of its distributional consequences. How does philanthropic public good provision affect inequalities in access to...

As knowledge production becomes more specialized, studying complex and multi-faceted empirical realities becomes more difficult. This has created a growing need for cross-fertilization and collaboration between research disciplines. According to prior studies, the sharing of concepts, ideas and...

The study of Economics as a discipline of Social Sciences has attracted a significant number of cross – disciplinary researches. A lot of emphasis has been bestowed upon the applications and implementations of the universal laws and results approved by the ‘natural' disciplines of Physical...

We analyze various normatively determined distributions of language rights in multilingual settings. A general model for the analysis of language rights over time in a model with overlapping generations is set up. This model is then first used to find efficient allocations of rights in the...

The news industry in the United States faces a funding crisis because the tech giants, particularly Google and Facebook, have acceded to the advertising monopolies once enjoyed by the newspaper industry itself. Despite the best efforts of the news industry to paint the tech giants as rapacious...

Does the growth of creative industries within a city yield both agglomeration effects (Marshallian externalities) as well as spillovers to the rest of the economy (Jacobian externalities, related to the novel combinations that can occur in cities with diversifted economic activities)? Most of...

Intermediaries facilitate exchanges between buyers and sellers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that intermediaries are ubiquitous in corrupt activities; however, empirical evidence on their role as facilitators of corrupt transactions is scarce. This paper asks whether, besides eliminating...