This note argues that the most commonly used estimates of the size of the unofficial economies in the former Soviet republics are flawed. Most important, they are based on calculations that disregard the variation in unofficial economic activity across space in the pre-transition Soviet Union....

Inter-firm information exchange with respect to the reliability of trade partners may be unmediated in the sense that it involves direct communication between the personnel of two firms. Alternatively, this information flow may be channeled by or through an organization such as a trade...

The empirical literature assessing the connection between land rights, access to finance and investment activity has focused largely on actors that, for multiple reasons, might face difficulties accessing credit. Communities of small-scale farmers or poor urban households in developing...

Why are some business lobbies less benign in their external effects than others? In The rise and decline of nations (New Haven: Yale University Press, <CitationRef CitationID="CR44">1982</CitationRef>), Mancur Olson proposed that less-encompassing groups—i.e., those whose constituents collectively represent a relatively narrow range of...</citationref>