Among the concerns faced by countries pondering the costs and benefits of greater economic openness to international capital flows is the worry that new and powerful external actors will exert a corrupting influence on the domestic economy. In this paper, we use a novel empirical strategy, drawn...

We estimate the causal real economic effects of a randomized anticorruption crackdown on local governments in Brazil over the period 2003-2014 using rich micro-data on corruption and firms. After anti-corruption audits, municipalities experience an increase in economic activity concentrated in...

Among the concerns faced by countries pondering the costs and benefits of greater economic openness to international capital flows is the worry that new and powerful external actors will exert a corrupting influence on the domestic economy. In this paper, we use a novel empirical strategy, drawn...

In several strategy documents, the Department of Defense has suggested that it may experiment with public-private partnerships (P3s) as catalysts for innovation. This policy is misguided. P3s may prove especially disappointing if they are merely a neologism for a continuation of the same old...

We study how individual political views shape firm behavior and labor market outcomes. Using new micro-data on the political affiliation of business owners and private-sector workers in Brazil over the 2002–2019 period, we first document the presence of political assortative matching: business...

In this paper, I provide an empirical and theoretical analysis on whether and how in-utero negative health shocks affect politicians' human capital and career and governance outcomes, using Chinese Great Famine (1959-1961) and Chinese city Party Secretaries as a case in point. Using a...

We study how individual political views shape firm behavior and labor market outcomes. Using new micro-data on the political affiliation of business owners and private-sector workers in Brazil over the 2002-2019 period, we first document the presence of political assortative matching: business...

We study the general equilibrium effects of firms' political connections, using whether the firm is invested by investors who follow any bureaucratic transfers as a measure of the political connection, as in Shi et al. (2021). We establish several empirical facts, including: (1) Politically...

In this paper, I study the effects of corruption on firm innovation, using a data set that covers the registration and patent application records of the universe of firms in China. I provide empirical evidence that corruption significantly deters innovation. Such effects are stronger for...

This paper examines the circumstances that led to the incorporation of the LIFO method of inventory valuation into the tax law in 1938 and 1939. An understanding of why the LIFO method was adopted after decades of initial opposition by revenue officials may lend perspective to the current policy...