This paper tests the hypothesis that during systemic banking crises, access to finance is opportunistically tightened by incumbents to eliminate or weaken competition from mainly young firms. We find this to be especially true in more corrupt countries. To do so, we employ a methodology similar...

This paper discusses the treatment of Ocwen Financial Corp by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since 2012 and also examines the actions of private investors. The paper suggests that the CFPB has been overly harsh in its treatment of Ocwen, both measured by the amount of fines and...

This paper focuses on the analysis of the long-run response of the Real Exchange Rate (RER) to political risks and tests whether non-economic variables have an impact on RER in 31 emerging and developing countries. We use annual data from the International Country Risk Guide database over the...

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) tend to lag those in most other regions in terms of governance and perceptions of corruption. Weak governance undermines economic performance through various channels, including deficiencies in government functions and distortions to economic incentives. It...

Political mobilization of business forces in the post-communist world has crucial implications for economic development and civil society. The emergence of strong cross-sectoral business associations during Putin's presidency challenges the prevailing view of Russia's political economy as an...

English Abstract: The Russian economy is caught in stagnation, but thanks to a skillful macroeconomic policy, the economy has stabilized. The current economic model is dualistic. On the one hand, the so-called systemic liberals are in charge of macroeconomic policy, which they pursue eminently....

We investigate the relationship between oil windfalls and income inequality using the subnational data of one of the resource-richest and most unequal countries in the world - Russia. While previous literature produced contradictory findings due to the use of an aggregate measure of oil rents...

Economic theory suggests that relative payoff scheme in a society might govern the allocation of talent to productive and unproductive activities. This paper provides empirical evidence by showing how China's recent anti-corruption campaign reshapes people's preference for bureaucratic jobs by...

Is culture a lasting driver of corruption? I study whether normative attitudes towards bribery persist through generational change. To disentangle cultural from institutional causes, I compare individuals who share an institutional environment but whose parents were born abroad. I find evidence...