Measures of institutional quality are strong predictors of cross-country differences in income and productivity. The institutional economics literature has long maintained that one way institutions influence economic growth is by impacting the efficient allocation of production factors across...

The extent to which economic policy uncertainty (EPU) amplifies exchange rate volatility has been an important research question for at least a decade. Previous research has investigated this relationship using monthly data, concluding that EPU imparts an effect on exchange rate volatility...

In this paper, we analyze the impact fiscal policy rules have on budget deficits and forecasting biases in official budget outlooks. Persistent budget deficits and over-optimistic budget forecasts have been observed in many countries in the past, especially in the euro area. To prevent such...

We collect data on the rules and practices of financial and conflict disclosure by politicians in 175 countries. Although two thirds of the countries have some disclosure laws, less than a third make disclosures available to the public. Disclosure is more extensive in richer and more democratic...

The recent east Asian crisis has lead to calls for a new international financial architecture. This paper investigates the crisis in terms of a "grabbing hand" theory of the state. Results indicate that those economies that chose not to have floating exchange rates and chose to have...

The resource curse is a topic studied intensively in both economics and political science. Much of the focus is now on whether oil affects democratic institutions. We further the debate through the use of additional measures of democracy and multiple time-series estimation strategies. We find no...

Patents are territorial instruments of exclusion structurally analogous to a protectionist trade barrier -- not affirmative rights or knowledge that can be treated as simple economic inputs. Digital technology has posed problems because of the vast number of patents, their presence in global...

Scientific disciplines, like economies, can and do experience booms and busts. We document a boom in climate science which is sustained by massive levels of funding by government entities and whose scientific direction is set by an extra-scientific organization, the IPCC. Although the popular...

The law and the economy are deeply influenced, in a great part of the world, by either the civil or the common law tradition. These two bundles of institutions emerged in Europe during the medieval period, were spread internationally through colonization and imitation, and operate in different...

Data driven governance systems are transforming the regulatory landscape of both states and other governance institutions. Grounded in principles of accountability and embedded in incentive based systems for reducing risk and managing behaviors through mechanisms of choice and markets, these...