Papers & Opinions



By Martin Schmalz | 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...


By Thomas Lambert | Posted on 30 June 2021

In this paper, we study the consequences of banks’ political connectedness for economic activity. We focus on the subset of banks that donate to candidates in US congressional elections, and...


By Haikun Zhu | 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...


By Oscar Soons | Posted on 21 May 2021

We analyze the political economy causes and consequences of a monetary unification among countries with different institutional quality. Before a common currency countries with stronger institutions have more efficient public...


By Magdalena Rola-Janicka | Posted on 21 May 2021

This paper introduces a voting model into a setting with negative borrowing externalities to study voter preferences for prudential regulation. Voters internalize the general equilibrium impact of prudential policy on...