This paper discusses the political economy of bank privatization in Argentina following institutional changes related to the implementation of the Convertibility Plan and to the Tequila Crisis. The empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that political incentives affect the likelihood...

Using a comprehensive country-level panel data set covering the period from 1990 to 2001, we investigate the impact of privatization and competition in the telecommunications sector around the world. Full privatization, which gave private owners control rights, contributed substantially to...

We propose entertainment and travel costs (ETC) expenditures as a measure of corruption in Chinese firms. These expenses are publicly reported in firms’ accounting books, and on average they amount to about 3 percent of a firm’s total value added. We find that ETC is a mix that includes...