Prologue : the patrimony of imperial Russia -- Introduction to Bolshevik gold : the nature of a forgotten problem -- The heist -- The banks -- The people -- The Gokhran -- The church -- Cashing in -- Brest-Litovsk and the diplomatic bag -- Blockade -- Stockholm -- London -- Rapallo -- Epilogue :...

We explore how institutional set-ups, in particular changes in political institutions through coups d'état, can affect the way military expenditures are determined. We use a counterfactual approach, the synthetic control method, and compare the evolution of the military burden for 40 countries...

We study determinants of sovereign portfolios of Spanish banks over a long time-span, starting in 2008. Our findings challenge the view that banks engaged in moral hazard strategies to exploit the regulatory treatment of sovereign exposures. In particular, we show that being a weakly capitalized...