Countries around the world continue to tax corporate income at significant rates despite downward pressures from international competition. Average statutory corporate income tax rates fell from 46% in 1982 to 33% in 1999, though tax bases simultaneously broadened, as a result of which average...

This paper studies the impact of corruption on inward foreign direct investment using a unique firm-level data set. It examines two effects of corruption simultaneously: a reduction in the volume of foreign investment and a shift in the ownership structure. Corruption makes local bureaucracy...

This study examines the influence of foreign ownership on the performance of fmtis operating in India. Foreign ownership is categorized according to the control exercisable at different levels of ownership. These categories are, in turn, determined by the institutional structure of the Indian...

How do changes in competitive intensity affect trade patterns? In this paper, we exploit a quasi-natural experiment associated with increased anti-trust enforcement activity over the last two decades. A large number of international markets underwent a change in competitive intensity as they...

In this study, we present novel statistics on the patenting in US manufacturing and new evidence on the question of what happens when firms patent. We do so by creating a comprehensive firm-patent matched dataset that links the NBER patent data (covering the universe of patents) to firm data...

We propose an industry-level index of capital liquidity -- defined as the share of used capital in aggregate industry capital expenditure -- that relates (inversely) to sunkenness of capital investment. We then test the effect of capital liquidity on the dispersion and mean of industry...

We use firm-level data and national input-output tables from 17 countries over the 2002- 2005 period to test new and existing hypotheses about the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the efficiency of domestic firms in the host country (i.e., spillovers). Providing evidence from a...

We develop an economic model of "greenwash," in which a firm strategically discloses environmental information and a non-governmental organization (NGO) may audit and penalize the firm for failing to fully disclose its environmental impacts. We identify conditions under which NGO punishment of...

We analyze a large stratified random sample of firms that provide us with measures of performance and each firm’s top manager’s perception of the severity of business environment constraints faced by his/her firm. Unlike most existing studies that rely on external and aggregated proxy...

We investigate the microeconomic effects of labor regulations that protect employment and are expected to increase rigidity in labor markets. We exploit a unique outlet-level dataset obtained from a multinational food chain operating 2,525 similar retail outlets in 43 countries outside the...