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The Weatherhead Center has developed a presence on the Internet that, to a growing readership, is playing a significant role in the projection of Harvard scholarship on international affairs. The site includes: faculty research available through categorical fields of inquiry; searches by author, subject, title or date of publication; Working Papers selected for online distribution based on their relevance to contemporary issues in international affairs; In the News links to op-ed and other pieces written by or about the Center’s faculty associates; and recent books by faculty associates, including editorial summaries. The Center is always adding to the collection of published journal articles available on its site and responding to the interests of Center faculty and other users in making the site an indispensable scholarly tool.

Below are a selection of our most recently uploaded publications.

Capital Flows and Capital Goods: by Alfaro, Laura; We examine one of the channels through which financial integration can help promote growth. We study the effects of capital account liberalization on the imports of capital goods paying particular...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: March 2006 More

Market Reactions to Export Subsidies: by Desai, Mihir A.; This paper analyzes the economic impact of export subsidies by investigating stock price reactions to a critical event in 1997. On November 18, 1997, the European Union announced its intention to...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: January 2004 More

Old Rules and New Realities: Corporate Tax Policy in a Global Setting: by Desai, Mihir A.; This paper reassesses the burden of the current U.S. international tax regime and reconsiders well–known welfare benchmarks used to guide international tax reform. Reinventing corporate tax policy...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: October 2004 More

Theft and Taxes: by Desai, Mihir A.; This paper analyzes the interaction between corporate taxes and corporate governance. We show that the characteristics of a taxation system affect the extraction of private benefits by company...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: December 2004 More

Czech Mate: Expropriation and Investor Protection in a Converging World: by Desai, Mihir A.; This paper examines the expropriation of a foreign investor by a local partner and the subsequent resolution of that case through international arbitration. Ronald Lauder, a U.S. investor, created a...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: September 2004 More

Institutions, Capital Constraints and Entrepreneurial Firm Dynamics: Evidence from Europe: by Desai, Mihir A.; We explore the impact of the institutional environment on the nature of entrepreneurial activity across Europe. Political, legal, and regulatory variables that have been shown to impact capital...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: November 2003 More

Is Child Labor Inefficient?: by Robinson, James A.; Journal of Political Economy, 108, 663-679 We build a model of child labor and study its implications for welfare. We assume that there is at trade–off between child labor and the accumulation of...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: September 2000 More

Political Losers as Barriers to Economic Development: by Robinson, James A.; American Economic Review, 90, 126-130 Per capita income in many sub–Saharan African countries, such as Chad and Niger, is less than 1/30th of that of the United States. Most economists and social...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: January 2000 More

Why Did the West Extend the Franchise? Growth, Inequality and Democracy in Historical Perspective: by Robinson, James A.; During the nineteenth century most Western societies extended voting rights, a decision that led to unprecedented redistributive programs. We argue that these political reforms can be viewed as...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: November 2000 More

Social Identity, Inequality, and Conflict: by Robinson, James A.; I extend the standard materialistic rational choice model of conflict to consider groups. In particular, I consider how the aggregate amount of conflict in society depends on which groups form and...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: March 2001 More

Inefficient Redistribution: by Robinson, James A.; American Political Science Review, 95, 649-662 There are many well–developed theories that explain why governments redistribute income, but very few can explain why this often is done in a...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: September 2001 More

A Theory of Political Transitions: by Robinson, James A.; We develop a theory of political transitions inspired by the experiences of Western Europe and Latin America. Nondemocratic societies are controlled by a rich elite. The initially disenfranchised...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: September 2001 More

The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: by Robinson, James A.; American Economic Review, 91, 1369–1401 We exploit differences in European mortality rates to estimate the effect of institutions on economic performance. Europeans adopted very different...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: June 2000 More

States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control by Jeffrey I. Herbst: A Review Essay: by Robinson, James A.; The most convincing theory of comparative economic development asserts that it is institutions – the way societies are organized – that are the fundamental cause of countries? development of...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: March 2000 More

Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution: by Robinson, James A.; Among countries colonized by European powers during the past 500 years, those that were relatively rich in 1500 are now relatively poor. We document this reversal using data on urbanizations...; Publication Type: Published Paper; Published Date: September 2001 More

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