Journal Article
Ethnic Politics in Ranked and Unranked Systems
This article explores how ethnic politics may operate differently in societies with “ranked” versus “unranked” ethnic systems, where ethnicity and class correlate closely versus very little. It focuses on two hypotheses suggested, but not tested, in...
Journal Article
Ethnic Divisions and Public Goods Provision, Revisited
A considerable amount of recent work in political science and economics builds from the hypothesis that ethnic heterogeneity leads to poor provision of public goods, a key component of poor governance. Much of this work cites Alesina, Baqir and...
Working Paper
Financing the New Economy
This paper examines the financial sector preconditions for the successful development of a high technology sector. It argues that there is a close relation between types of activities undertaken in different countries and their institutional...
Working Paper
Out with the Sleaze, in with the Ease
Improved governance and lower start-up costs may not be sufficient for encouraging the type of entrepreneurship that matters for economic growth. Using panel data on 60 countries spanning the period 2003-07 this paper establishes that (i) opportunity...
Journal Article
Financing the New Economy
Part of Journal Special Issue
The New Economy
Working Paper
Institutional Investors, Corporate Ownership, and Corporate Governance
We examine the role of institutional investors in financial markets and in corporate governance. In many countries, institutional investors have become the predominant players in financial markets and their influence worldwide is growing, chiefly due...
Working Paper
Bankruptcy Proceedings for Sovereign State Insolvency
The paper examines the main issues involved in translating domestic bankruptcy procedures to the sovereign context. It considers some of the principles by which domestic bankruptcy procedures operate, and the extent to which they apply to...
Working Paper
How do small firms respond to tax schedule discontinuities?
In this paper we study the effects of various tax schedule discontinuities on the behavior of small firms using high-quality and population-wide tax register data from South Africa. We use the bunching method to analyse how these discontinuities...
Working Paper
Corporate Governance, Innovative Enterprise, and Economic Development
The notion that good corporate governance means maximizing shareholder value derives from the neoclassical theory of the market economy. I explain why this perspective is highly problematic for understanding the operation and performance of the...
Working Paper
Emergence of Unorthodox Ownership and Governance Structures in East Asia
This paper examines the nature of the unorthodox ownership and governance structures that are emerging among firms and the way these structures are supporting the remarkable economic growth in the transition economies of East Asia, as represented in...