I use the standard screening model to study the relationship between bribes and red tape. I argue that bribe-taking bureaucrats extract bribes by exploiting differences in firms' marginal costs of red tape and offer a menu of bribes and paperwork processing times, where a larger bribe is...

The effects that corruption and tax policy have on entrepreneurship and firm growth have been often studied in the literature. This current paper adds to that literature by evaluating how the interaction effect between corruption and tax policy influences firm entry at the US state level, using...

We find that the 2013 Chinese anti-corruption campaign remarkably reduced charitable donations from listed companies with strong political connections, and lessened government subsidies to these companies, implying a reciprocal relationship between companies and the government prior to the...

This paper exploits quasi-experimental variation in tariffs in southern Africa to estimate trade elasticities. Traded quantities respond only weakly to a 30 percent reduction in the average nominal tariff rate. Trade flow data combined with primary data on firm behavior and bribe payments...

In this paper, I study the effects of hometown favoritism on intercity investments in China, or more specifically, whether and how local government officials will bring more investments from their hometown to their workplace. In generalized difference-in-differences specifications, I find that...

Local protectionism disrupts buyer-supplier chains, since it requests local firms to buy the outputs of other local firms as inputs. Hence, it is an important factor for firms' location choices, as buyer-supplier chains affect profitability. I study how local protectionism shapes the spatial...

This article empirically studies why manufacturing firms bribe the government officials. Firm-level data focusing on the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) was acquired from an Enterprise Survey conducted by the World Bank between 2002 and 2012. The BRICS...

Business registration is crucial for ensuring accountable, transparent and viable business environments. By bringing businesses into the formal economy, governments are able to provide more strategic and targeted policies for businesses and consumers. The objective of this working paper is to...

Berkshire Hathaway, among history's largest and most successful corporations, shuns middlemen; its chairman, the legendary investor Warren Buffett, excoriates financial intermediaries. The acquisitive conglomerate rarely borrows money, retains brokers, or hires consultants. Its governance is...

This paper investigates business people’s perceptions of corruption as an obstacle for doing business and their attitudes towards corruption. It is based on a survey conducted on the sample of over 1800 business owners and managers in the Western Balkans region. Using the original survey data...