This paper models the process of regulatory agency design, focusing on the role of credibility. The government is constrained in the sense that it must create regulatory institutions that allow it to commit to not administratively expropriate investors. The model explains both the preference of...

In this paper we examine land reform policies and their implications for violent conflict over land and resource use in the Brazilian Amazon. We identify the protagonists (land owners and squatters), derive their incentives to use violence, and show the role of legal inconsistencies as a basis...

We present a conceptual framework to better understand the interaction between settlement and the emergence of de facto property rights on frontiers prior to governments establishing and enforcing de jure property rights. In this framework, potential rents associated with more exclusivity drives...

We examine land reform policies and their implications for violent conflict over land and resource use in the Brazilian Amazon. We identify the protagonists (land owners and squatters), derive their incentives to use violence, and show the role of legal inconsistencies as a basis for conflict....

IInnovation and new ideas often arise in contexts that are more conducive to the recombination of existing knowledge. I use data from hip hop chart rankings and YouTube video views to uncover patterns of this recombination and measure their impact in a cultural setting. This genre of music is...

Settlement, government policy, and property rights in the Brazilian Amazon : introduction and implications for frontiers elsewhere in the world -- A history of land policy in Brazil : the assignment of property rights to land and land reform -- Current land policies : the politics and economics...

We extend the literature on interest group behavior and policy outcomes by examining how groups with limited resources (votes and campaign contributions) effectively influence government by manipulating media information to voters. Voters in turn lobby politicians to implement the group's...