Publications

SSRN

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2014
Working Paper

Financial Repression in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

By the end of 2013, the share of government debt held by the domestic banking sectors of Eurozone countries was more than twice its 2007 level. We show that this type of increasing reliance on the domestic banking sector for absorbing government bonds generates a... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cycles; Sovereign Debt; Financial Repression; Sovereign Finance; Greece

SSRN

2022
Working Paper

Measuring the Tolerance of the State: Theory and Application to Protest

By: Veli Andirin, Yusuf Neggers, Mehdi Shadmehr and Jesse M. Shapiro

We develop a measure of a regime's tolerance for an action by its citizens. We ground our measure in an economic model and apply it to the setting of political protest. In the model, a regime anticipating a protest can take a costly action to repress it. We define the... View Details

Keywords: Political Protests; Modeling And Analysis; Government and Politics; Conflict and Resolution

Awards

Pagano-Zechner Best Paper Award, Finalist

By: Victoria Ivashina

Finalist for the 2018 Pagano & Zechner Prize for Best Non-Investments Paper Published in the Review of Finance for "Financial Repression in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis" (February 2018) with Bo Becker. View Details

2012
Working Paper

Unobserved State Fragility and the Political Transfer Problem

By: Faisal Z. Ahmed and Eric Werker

Autocrats experiencing a windfall in unearned income may find it optimal to donate to other countries some of the windfall in order to make the state a less attractive prize to potential insurgents. We put forward a model that makes that prediction, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Non-Renewable Energy; International Relations; Economics

09 Feb 2015
News

Turkey’s secularization in reverse?

2015
Article

Aid and the Rise and Fall of Conflict in the Muslim World

By: Faisal Z Ahmed and Eric D. Werker

The conflict following the Arab Spring is not the first wave of civil war in the Muslim world in recent time. From the mid-1980s to the end of the century, an average of one in 10 predominantly Muslim countries experienced violent civil war in any given year. We... View Details

Keywords: War; International Relations; Religion; Energy Sources

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2022
Chapter

Buying Time? The Vietnam War and Southeast Asia

By: Mattias Fibiger

This article examines the “buying time thesis”—the idea that the American war in Vietnam bought time for the rest of Southeast Asia to build up political, economic, military, and diplomatic defenses against communism. It finds that there is some truth to claims that... View Details

Keywords: Vietnam War; Impact; Legacy; Geopolitics; War; History; Government and Politics; Southeast Asia

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10 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Unobserved State Fragility and the Political Transfer Problem

Keywords: by Faisal Z. Ahmed & Eric Werker

June 2013 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa

By: Geoffrey Jones and Elliot R. Benton

This case considers the strategies of Charles W. Engelhard, an American mining magnate who made large investments in apartheid-era South Africa. Engelhard was widely believed to have been the model for the James Bond villan Auric Goldfinger. During the 1950s and 1960s... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Business History; FDI; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; South Africa; Mining; Ethics; Globalization; Government and Politics; History; Mining Industry; Africa; South Africa

Educators

February 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Remaking the Rainbow Nation: South Africa 2002

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Debora L. Spar and Katherine E. Cousins

In April 1994, the world witnessed a political milestone in South Africa. After decades of repression and racial segregation, South Africa's black majority came to power at last, as the African National Congress (ANC), led by the celebrated Nelson Mandela, rode into... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Race; Political Elections; Economic Growth; Business and Government Relations; South Africa

Educators

01 Sep 2015
First Look

First Look -- September 1, 2015

given year. We provide a partial explanation for this statistic: a foreign aid windfall to poor, non-oil producing Muslim countries during the twin oil crises of the 1970s allowed the recipient states to become more repressive and stave... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 11

prize in Newark, New Jersey. It provides an opportunity to debate the political and ethical responsibilities of businesses in repressive regimes as well as the challenges faced by entrepreneurs operating in countries with different value... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2016
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Alberto Mora and the Costs and Consequences of Torture

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Benjamin Summers

Alberto Mora's time as General Counsel of the Navy from 2001–2006 greatly influenced his mission to illuminate the policy consequences of torture. Mora's drive to restore the nation's awareness and conscience against torture was gaining traction. Prominent... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Skills; Torture; Costs And Consequences; Humane; Restraint; Human Dignity; Treatment Of Prisoners; Prison; Repression; Opposition; Revolution; Democracy; Communism; International Affairs; Public Service; September 11; War On Terror; Operation Enduring Freedom; Guantanamo; Cuba; Coalition; Working Group; Cruelty; Interrogation; Memorandum; American Law; Authority; Authoritative; Quadrennial Defense Review; National Defense Authorization Act; Public Engagement; Advocacy; Law; Accountability; Center For The Victims Of Torture; Human Rights; Public Policy; Legality; Morality; Legal System; Tactical Military Operations; West Point; NGO; Human Rights First; American Civil Liberties Union; Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; Constitution Project; Center For Constitutional Rights; Strategic Military Effect; National Security; Weapon; Terrorism; Prisoners Of War; Abu Ghraib; Pentagon; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Rights; Policy; Public Opinion; United States