During World War II, artworks significantly outperformed all alternative investments in Occupied France. With the surge in demand for portable and easy-to-hide (discreet) assets such as artworks and collectible stamps, prices boomed. This suggests that discreet assets may be viewed as...

I explore the fact that the Mongol Empire invaded most of Eurasia but left Western Europe untouched. I hypothesize that differences in exposure to the Mongols resulted in divergent institutional paths. Where the Mongols invaded, they set up highly centralized autocratic institutions. Meanwhile,...