Cronyism

The Coronavirus Crisis Has Exposed Private Equity’s Unsustainable Business Model

Private equity portfolio companies are heavily indebted, and they aren’t generating enough cash to service debts. The steady increase in asset values...

Who Benefits When State Governments Award Incentives to Politically-Connected Companies?

A new study finds that a company is nearly four times more likely to receive an economic incentive in a state where the company...

Subsidies to Amazon Are Uneconomical, Un-American, and Unconstitutional

Corporate subsidies are a negative-sum game. They foster crony capitalism, hurt productivity growth and inflict great harm on product market competition. As soon as Amazon announced...

What Glue Holds Communist Capitalism Together in China? Cronyism

With a few cronyist tweaks, China’s communist leaders made capitalism safe for Party rule. But will cronyism become China’s next booming export? The Chinese economy...

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Monetary Policy

How Many Banks Are at Risk of Insolvency Right Now?

Amit Seru, Erica Xuewei Jiang, Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski

Given the recent banking turmoil and failure of SVB and Signature and issues in First Republic, it is important to understand the...

Misinformation

The Challenges of Regulating Disinformation

Federico Vaccari

In response to rising concerns about political disinformation, governments have introduced a slew of interventions. Federico Vaccari warns in new research that...

Development

India’s Evolving Industrial Policy Is Critical for Realizing Its Development Vision

Nagesh Kumar

Industrial policy was once so out of fashion that it was jokingly called “the policy that shall not be named.” Now it’s...

Big Tech

Can Twitter Be a Force for Good? Social Media Helps Curb Corporate Misconduct

Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli

Collective shaming on social media is crucial in reducing corporate misbehavior — and society would be significantly worse off without watchdog platforms.

Populism

The Historical Cost of Populism

Moritz Schularick, Christoph Trebesch, Manuel Funke

Most work on populism has investigated the reasons why voters choose populist leaders and governments. In new research, Moritz Schularick, Christoph Trebesch,...