Discussion Papers

This paper explores the effect of oil shocks on electoral outcomes. Using a new polling and election dataset for 207 elections across 50 democracies...

What will be the political legacy of the Coronavirus pandemic? We find that epidemic exposure in an individual’s “impressionable years” (ages 18 to 25...

This paper offers for the first time a global picture of gender discrimination by the law as it affects women’s economic opportunity and charts the...

This paper develops a heterogeneous firm-dynamics model to jointly study firms’ currency debt composition and investment choices. In our model...

The EU’s 2019 Insolvency Directive increases debt holders’ control over bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, mirroring recent trends in U.S. Chapter...

We examine a new data set of laws and practices governing public procurement, as well as procurement outcomes, in 187 countries. We measure regulation...

We estimate the survival time of nearly 7,000 firms in a dozen of high-income and middle-income countries in a scenario of extreme economic distress...

Loan guarantees are popular policy responses during the COVID-19 crisis. Despite their prevalence, evidence of their effectiveness is sparse. We...

In the 30 years since the fall of communism, the countries of the former Soviet bloc and Yugoslavia have undergone tremendous change. Income per...

Rank-and-file employees are becoming increasingly critical for many firms, yet we know little about how their employment dynamics matter for stock...

Students around the world are going to school but are not learning – an emerging gap in human capital formation. To understand this gap, we introduce...

We show that Eastern Orthodox believers are less happy compared to those of Catholic and Protestant faith using data covering more than 100 countries...

Using panel data for 189 economies from 2004 to 2016, we show that business-friendly regulations are correlated with the poverty headcount at the...

This paper revisits the relationship between firm performance and CEO turnover. We drop the distinction between forced and voluntary turnovers and...

Using panel data for 189 economies from 2004 to 2016, we show that regulatory reform is associated with periods of fiscal imbalances. This association...

This discussion paper examines evidence from 39 economies where cuts in the corporate income tax rate have been implemented since 1986. The paper also...