Using survey data from 28 transition countries, we test for the complementarity and substitutability of market-relevant skills and institutions. We show that democracy and good governance complement market skills in transition economies. Under autocracy and weak governance institutions there is...

This paper has three goals. The first (and perhaps the most important one) is to provide a new compilation of data on ethnic, linguistic and religious composition at the sub-national level for a large number of countries. This data set allows us to measure segregation of different ethnic,...

Using detailed panel data from the Pale of Settlement area between 1800 and 1927, we document that anti-Jewish pogroms--mob violence against the Jewish minority--broke out when economic shocks coincided with political turmoil. When this happened, pogroms primarily occurred in places where Jews...

In textbook theory, demand curves for stocks are kept flat by riskless arbitrage between perfect substitutes. In reality, however, individual stocks do not have perfect substitutes. The risk inherent in arbitrage between imperfect substitutes may deter risk-averse arbitrageurs from flattening...

In the classic theory of Scholes (1972), demand curves for stocks are kept flat by riskless arbitrage between perfect substitutes. In reality, however, individual stocks do not have perfect substitutes. We develop a simple model of demand curves for stocks in which the risk inherent in arbitrage...