Papers & Opinions



By Philip Valta | Posted on 1 October 2021

We analyze a novel data set of corporate contributions to ballot initiatives and referendums at the U.S. state level. Firms make significant contributions to ballot measures in favor of or...


By Matthew Henriksson | Posted on 27 September 2021

We analyze the partisanship of Securities and Exchange Commissioners (SEC) and members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Fed). Using the language-based approach of Gentzkow, Shapiro, and Taddy (Econometrica,...


By Davide Romelli | Posted on 25 September 2021

What explains the worldwide changes in central bank design over the past five decades? Using a new dataset on central bank institutional design, this paper investigates the timing, pace and...


By Max Miller | Posted on 21 September 2021

Risk premia are significantly elevated during periods of democratization in a cross-country panel of equity data covering 85 countries over 200 years, despite little evidence of a negative effect on...


By Laurent Bouton | Posted on 20 September 2021

This paper studies voting in shareholders meetings. We focus on the informational efficiency of different voting mechanisms, taking into account that they affect both management's incentives before the meeting and...


By Orkun Saka | Posted on 16 September 2021

Recent wildfires in Turkey have not only destroyed more than 95,000 hectares of its coastal forestland but also divided the country further into its political colors. This piece discusses the...


By Philip Valta | Posted on 13 September 2021

Candidate self-funding, in particular self-loans, is a significant source of funding of political campaigns.  Self-funding clusters among newcomers, Senate campaigns and Republican campaigns.  Self-funded campaigns raise less money from individuals...


By Lena Tonzer | Posted on 6 September 2021

The regulatory architecture of the financial system has significantly changed after the global financial crisis of 2008/09. In Europe, the introduction of the Single Rulebook has been a major change...


By Ran Duchin | Posted on 2 September 2021

We demonstrate that similarity in employees’ political attitudes plays an important role in mergers and acquisitions. Using detailed data on employees’ campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans, we find that...


By Davide Romelli | Posted on 30 August 2021

Previous scholarship on central bank accountability has generally focused on monetary authorities' deeds and words while largely ignoring the other side of the accountability relationship, namely politicians' voice on monetary...


By Jörg Stahl | 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...


By Orkun Saka | Posted on 17 August 2021

Despite the commonly held views of economists on regulatory capture, our profession has been much more hesitant in recognising similar conflicts of interests that may exist in economics research. This...


By Dirk Niepelt | Posted on 11 August 2021

We analyze the introduction of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) into a two-tiered monetary system. Deposits, reserves, and CBDC differ in terms of operating costs and liquidity. We identify the optimal...


By Orkun Saka | Posted on 4 August 2021

A rapidly expanding literature has shown the importance of political economy factors for legislative and regulatory actions in the financial sector and ultimately financial sector stability and efficiency. This column...


By Jörg Stahl | 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....