We study the effects of a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made it harder for prosecutors to bring corruption cases against public servants. We argue that this exogenous shock to anticorruption enforcement created a “protection racket”: regulated firms located in high-corruption states...

Despite strong traditions of research into corruption and into telecommunications policy and regulation, the two are almost never combined, an absence that remains unexplained. One possibility is that it is “dangerous” in terms of physical harm, financial harm from defamation law suits or...

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...

Reducing corruption in the telecommunications sector requires licensing reforms. Liberalisation ignored known risks of corruption in both developing countries and in the telecommunications sector, allowing bribery, cronyism and nepotism to enter and to flourish. A discussion of past and present...

All forms of renewable energy are at an inflection point. Falling costs, changing technology, and new environmental and climate regulations have all moved to exponentially increase the growth of renewable energy. How legal terms, such as "qualifying facility" under PURPA are interpreted and...

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid program for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German State of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have - depending on broadband quality -...

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid programme for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German state of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. We find that aided municipalities have—depending on quality— between 16.8 and 23.2 percentage points higher broadband...

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid programme for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German state of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using matched difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have – depending on...

Recent empirical data indicate that the Commission's proxy access proposals reduce shareholder wealth and are inimical to the best interests of the shareholder community at large. Cross-sectional variation in stock price response data further suggest that the Commission should reject a...

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid program for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German State of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have – depending on broadband quality...