Papers & Opinions

Banking | Empirics | Special interest politics

The Politics of the Paycheck Protection Program

Paper

Posted on 8 December 2021

By Thomas Lambert

This paper examines the incidence of special interests in the allocation of loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). We find that lobbying at the firm and industry levels helps...
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Electoral politics | Political institutions | Theory

Leaping into the Dark: A Model of Policy Gambles with Self-Fulfilling Features

Paper

Posted on 22 November 2021

By Kartik Anand

We examine why rational voters support risky “policy gambles”, even when detrimental to welfare, over maintaining a safe status quo. We present a model of electoral competition with two groups...
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Empirics | Financial markets | Political institutions

House of Funds

Paper

Posted on 15 November 2021

By Nataliya Gerasimova

I document that political connections are an important driver of investment strategies of U.S. mutual funds. I collect data on mutual fund holdings of U.S. Congress members and equity holdings...
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Banking | Special interest politics | Theory

Bank Influence at a Discount

Paper

Posted on 8 November 2021

By Stylianos Papageorgiou

In a general equilibrium framework, we study the cost incurred by banks to ''buy" influence on capital regulation via campaign contributions. Our central result is that banks buy influence at...
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Corporate finance | Regulation | Theory

Voting and Trading: The Shareholder’s Dilemma

Paper

Posted on 22 October 2021

By Shaoting Pi

We study firm governance when shareholders strategically vote and buy/sell shares. We find that voting for the better policy maximizes portfolio value only when pivotal; otherwise, it is better to...
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Corporate finance | Empirics | Political institutions

The Effect of Female Leadership on Contracting from Capitol Hill to Main Street

Paper

Posted on 18 October 2021

By Nataliya Gerasimova

This paper provides novel evidence that female politicians increase the proportion of US government procurement contracts allocated to women-owned firms. The identification strategy uses close elections for the US House...
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Banking | Central banking | Electoral politics | Empirics | Political institutions

Central Banks in Parliaments

Paper

Posted on 10 October 2021

By Nicolo Fraccaroli

This paper investigates whether parliamentary hearings are effective in holding central banks accountable against their mandates. To this end, it applies text analysis on the hearings of the Bank of...
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Banking | Corporate finance | Electoral politics | Financial markets

Does Political Partisanship Cross Borders? Evidence from International Capital Flows

Paper

Posted on 4 October 2021

By Elisabeth Kempf

Does partisan perception shape the flow of international capital? We provide evidence from two settings, syndicated corporate loans and equity mutual funds, to show that ideological alignment with foreign governments...
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Corporate finance

Direct Democracy, Corporate Political Strategy, and Firm Value

Paper

Posted on 1 October 2021

By Philip Valta

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...
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Central banking | Empirics | Financial markets | Regulation

The Partisanship of Financial Regulators

Paper

Posted on 27 September 2021

By Matthew Henriksson

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,...
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Central banking | Political institutions

The Political Economy of Reforms in Central Bank Design

Paper

Posted on 25 September 2021

By Davide Romelli

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...
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Empirics | Financial markets | Political institutions | Theory

Democratization, Inequality, and Risk Premia

Paper

Posted on 21 September 2021

By Max Miller

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...
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Corporate finance | Political institutions | Theory

Voting in Shareholders Meetings

Paper

Posted on 20 September 2021

By Laurent Bouton

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...
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Banking | Electoral politics | Empirics | Political institutions

The Costs of Political Misalignment: Forest Fires and Bank Loans in Turkey

Opinion

Posted on 16 September 2021

By Orkun Saka

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...
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Special interest politics

Self-funding of Political Campaigns

Paper

Posted on 13 September 2021

By Philip Valta

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...
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