We use a simple differences-in-differences technique to examine whether adopting explicit deposit insurance impacts on the scale of private capital inflows to developing economies. We present evidence suggesting that these inflows improved more in countries that adopted deposit insurance than in...

We estimate the impact of bank credit to the private sector on corruption, using indicators of a country’s legal origin as instrumental variables to assess causality. We find that bank credit to the private sector reduces corruption, with the result robust to instrumenting for bank credit and...

The relative importance of intra-industry or inter-industry knowledge spillovers for the growth of cities remains an open question. Using a unique data set on the growth of 109 British cities during 1951--1991, we find evidence suggesting that the most important knowledge spillovers occur...

The literature on the economics of fiscal decentralization stresses the potential for both positive and negative effects on governance in a country. Using a data set comprising sixty-four developed and developing economies and several different measures of fiscal decentralization, the authors...