Papers & Opinions


Paper


Posted on 23 August 2021

We present novel evidence on the value of cross-border political access. We analyze data on meetings of US multinational enterprises (MNEs) with European Commission (EC) policymakers. Meetings with Commissioners are...

Paper


Posted on 2 August 2021

This paper analyzes the effect of the composition of the electorate on corporate prospects. Electorates constantly change, and support-maximizing policymakers adjust their legislative behavior to accommodate shifts in voter preferences....

Paper


Posted on 16 July 2021

We show that political polarization between directors and the CEO negatively impacts the effectiveness of corporate boards. At the director level, polarization increases directors’ incentive to monitor the CEO but...

Paper


Posted on 3 July 2021

Executive teams in U.S. firms are becoming increasingly politically polarized. We establish this new fact using political affiliations from voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between...

Paper


Posted on 2 July 2021

We examine the response from both local governments and their voters to a sudden increase in public debt burden. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the ex post cost of...

Paper


Posted on 1 July 2021

We document that central banks are significantly more likely to report slightly positive profits than slightly negative profits, especially amid greater political pressure, the public’s receptiveness to more extreme political...

Paper


Posted on 22 June 2021

We investigate how politicians’ ideologies affect economic outcomes and financial development through firm-level channels. We explore a unique setting of ideological change in China from Mao’s ideology to Deng’s around...