Although many of the worst performing countries over the post-World War II period were autocracies, many of the best were likewise autocratic. At the same time, no long-lived autocracy currently is rich whereas every long-lived democracy is. This paper proposes a theory to account for these...

Although there is a large literature on employment effects of earned income tax credits (EITCs) and unemployment benefits, less is known about wage effects. In our model the impact is via the net (after-tax) replacement rate. Using a panel of individuals from Sweden, we find a positive...

Using a large dataset covering all trade in military equipment over the period 1950-2007, we address the relationship between differences in polity and arms trade from a novel empirical perspective. We provide evidence on the determinants of link formation at the bilateral level by estimating...

Using SIPRI data on all international transfers of major conventional weapons 1950–2007, we study the relationship between differences in polity and arms trade. To study whether states tend to trade arms within their political vicinity we estimate gravity models of the likelihood of trade at...

We investigate the impact of inflation targeting and central bank independence on wage formation and unemployment using a panel of 20 OECD countries from 1982-2003. The results suggest that monetary institutions matter for wage formation. Real wages are on average higher under inflation...

Data on the growth performances of countries with similar comparative (dis)advantage and political institutions reveal a striking variation across world regions. While some former autocracies such as the East Asian growth miracles have done remarkably well, others such as the Latin American...