This paper examines the effect of banking on economic growth in modern Russia. To overcome simultaneity and selection, we exploit regional banking variation induced by the creation of "specialized banks" (spetsbanks) in the last years of the Soviet Union (1988-1991). Consistent with the...

This paper examines whether privatizing state-owned banks improves finance and economic growth. To do so, we exploit regional banking variations in Russia induced by the idiosyncratic creation of “specialized banks” in the last years of the Soviet Union (1988–91) that were subsequently...

This paper shows how valid inferences can be made when an instrumental variable does not perfectly satisfy the orthogonality condition. When there is a mild violation of the orthogonality condition, the Anderson and Rubin (1949) test is oversized. In order to correct this problem, the...

How does the quality of national institutions that enforce the rule of law influence international trade? Anderson and Marcouiller argue that bad institutions located in the importer's country deter international trade because they enable economic predators to steal and extort rents at the...