Conventional wisdom warns that unaccountable political and business agents can enrich a few at the expense of many. This title intends to find statistical evidence and case study illustrations that democratic institutions at various governance levels have facilitated opportunistic gains for...

Electoral constituencies recognize favorable policy outcomes in high-turnout jurisdictions. In this article I evaluate whether underlying institutions might provide a finer explanation of this relationship. To do so I formally examine variation in telecommunications policy across U.S. states....

Economists tend to agree that the recent cutting of dividends taxes will encourage investment and reduce financial distress. In addition to creating these “benefits,” however, the tax cut can also increase governance costs. For example, by removing a bias for leveraged capital structures,...