This paper examines the effect of global transition to simpler, flatter income tax systems onthe size of the shadow economy. By offering a new estimation framework, the paper revivesthe traditional electricity consumption approach to measuring the shadow economy. Itovercomes the limitations of...

The financial crisis has re-ignited the fierce debate about the merits of financial globalizationand its implications for growth, especially for developing countries. The empirical literaturehas not been able to conclusively establish the presumed growth benefits of financialintegration. Indeed,...

We study whether cultural attitudes towards gender, the young, and leisure are signi…cantdeterminants of the evolution over time of the employment rates of women and of the young, andof hours worked in OECD countries. Beyond controlling for a larger menu of policies, institutionsand structural...

We analyze the role of risk-sharing institutions in transitions to modern economies.Transitions requires individual-level risk-taking in pursuing productivity-enhancing activitiesincluding using and developing new knowledge. Individual-level, idiosyncratic risk implies thatdistinct risk-sharing...

We develop entrepreneurship and institutional theory to explain variation in different types ofentrepreneurship across individuals and institutional contexts. Our framework generateshypotheses about the negative impact of higher levels of corruption, weaker property rightsand especially...

Using firm-level data from nine developing countries we demonstrate that (a) certaininstitutions like restrictive labour market regulations that are considered to be bad foreconomic growth might be beneficial for production efficiency, whereas (b) good businessenvironment which is considered to...

We examine whether legal institutions affect the balance of power between CEOs and shareholders. Particularly, we test to which extent legal rules matter for the extent to which CEOs receive generous pay packages. The study uses a world-widedata set covering 27 countries for the period 1995 to...

We use data from over 20,000 firms in 60 countries to identify constraints on the growth offirms. We interpret managers´ answers to survey questions on the extent to which variousaspects of their external environment inhibit the performance of their firm as measuring theshadow cost of...

Germany and France are both Continental European welfare states with severe labor marketproblems such as low employment and high and persistent unemployment which can beexplained by labor market institutions that inhibit labor market adaptability...