Across the social sciences, lagged explanatory variables are a common strategy to confront challenges to causal identification using observational data. We show that “lag identification” — the use of lagged explanatory variables to solve endogeneity problems — is an illusion: lagging...

In the eyes of many citizens, activists, pundits, and scholars, American democracy appears under threat. Concern about President Trump and the future of American politics may be found among both conservatives and progressives; among voters, activists, and elites; and among many scholars and...

This article reviews the literature on the politics of bureaucracy in the developing world, with a focus on service delivery and bureaucratic performance. We survey classic topics and themes such as the developmental state, principal–agent relations, and the efficient grease hypothesis, and we...

Financial sectors in the developing world pressure governments to open capital accounts, a policy which standard theories of open economy politics predicts would harm their interests. I explain this apparent contradiction by studying international financial intermediation, showing that lenders...

Scholars of ethnic politics have long focused on conflict between migrant and indigenous communities, but the conceptual foundations of indigeneity as a social and political category remain poorly specified in political science. Drawing on recent advances in anthropological theory, we...

This essay reviews the literature on historical persistence in political science and the related social sciences. Historical persistence refers to causal effects that (1) operate over time scales of a decade or more and (2) explain spatial variation in political, economic, or social outcomes.We...

â?¢ At least 12 European Union member states used publicly created asset management companies (AMCs), otherwise known as a â??badbanksâ?? to respond to the recent financial crisis. This tool remains an option for future bank resolutions under the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive....

Bank supervisors should provide publicly accessible, timely and consistent data on the banks under their jurisdiction. Such transparency increases democratic accountability and leads to greater market efficiency. There is greater supervisory transparency in the United States compared to the...

As the basis for a European regime for resolving failing and failed banks, the European Commission has proposed the Bank Resolution and Recovery Directive (BRRD) and a regulation establishing a European Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and a Single Bank Resolution Fund (SBRF). There is a debate...

Who is watching the financial services industry? Since 1980, there have been multiple waves of thought about whether the ministry of finance, the central bank, a specialized regulator or some combination of these should have supervisory authority. These waves have been associated with the...