This paper uses the enactment of China’s 2007 Property Law (the Law), which reduces the risk of expropriation by local … governments, as the setting to investigate the importance of property rights protection for private firm investment. Using … prior to the Law significantly increase their investment and investment efficiency after the Law. Cross-sectional analyses …

We consider a simple political-economic model where capitalist investment is constrained by the government's temptation … support reputational equilibria with more investment, even without liberalization. So we find a resources curse, where larger … resource endowments can decrease investment and reduce the ruler's revenue. The ruler's incentive to liberalize can be greatest …

, however, can be used as an indicator for how likely investors believe government expropriation is in particular industries …

What explains private investment in autocracies, where institutions that discourage expropriation in democracies are … parties promote investment by solving collective-action problems among a designated elite, who invest with the expectation … that the autocrat will not attempt their expropriation. We derive conditions under which autocrats want to create such …

What explains private investment in autocracies, where institutions that discourage expropriation in democracies are … parties promote investment by solving collective-action problems among a designated group, who invest with the expectation … that the autocrat will not attempt their expropriation. We derive conditions under which autocrats want to create such …