JOURNAL ARTICLES
Opportunistic Privatization [link]
(2023) European Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming (with Vladan Ivanović, Drini Imami)
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Politicians use subsidies to induce privatised firms to pursue costly strategies (e.g. excess employment)
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Before elections, politicians prefer privatization to state ownership, and privatization activity increases.
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In Serbia, former SOEs privatized before elections are sold at a discount, display higher costs, and achieve a lower performance than other privatized firms.
Corruption and Growth: Historical Evidence, 1790-2010 [link]
(2022) Journal of Comparative Economics, 50 (2): 321-349
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Corruption reduces the steady-state rate of economic growth.
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The detrimental effects of corruption are larger in democracies, where 'petty' corruption is more prevalent.
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Corruption is no less harmful in economies with more dysfunctional economic institutions.
The Feminisation U, Cultural Norms, and the Plough [link]
(2023) Journal of Population Economics, 36 (1): 5-35 (with Elodie Douarin)
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Female labour supply first declines and then rises in the course of economic development.
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In the data, this pattern is only found in countries with a legacy of historical plough use.
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The mechanisms that generate the U are only operative in contexts with gender-unequal cultural norms
Bribes, Rents and Industrial Firm Performance in Albania and Kosovo [link]
(2020) Comparative Economic Studies, 62: 263-302
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Bribes are costs that firms incur to 'grease the wheels' of the bureaucracy and/or to seek rents.
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A novel enterprise survey was conducted to measure corruption and rent transfers at the firm level.
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Bribes and rents have both positive and negative effects on firm performance; yet, the net effect is negative.
Does Aid Promote Electoral Integrity? [link]
(2019) Journal of Development Studies, 56 (6): 1067-94 (with David Jackson)
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Aid spending for elections has a small but positive effect on the freedom and fairness of elections.
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Ballot stuffing and counting irregularities are especially responsive to donor-funded integrity efforts.
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Electoral assistance programmes are more effective if implemented closer to election day.
Election Cycles and Mining-sector Governance in Post-conflict Kosovo [link]
(2019) Post-Communist Economies, 31 (5): 623-645 (with Geoffrey Pugh, Drini Imami, Endrit Lami)
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The number of mining licenses issued increases significantly in the 6 months preceding scheduled elections.
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There is no significant increase in licensing activities before early (snap) elections.
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The election cycle is driven primarily by an increase in licences for the mining of construction materials.
Corruption in Transition Economies: Socialist, Ottoman or Structural? [link]
(2018) Economic Systems, 42 (4): 533-55
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Countries with a longer history of Ottoman and socialist rule have more corruption today, all else equal.
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Historical legacies have less explanatory power than contemporary determinants of corruption.
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Per-capita income today explains half the variation in corruption levels across post-socialist countries.
Political Business Cycles and Construction Licensing: Evidence from Post-Socialist Tirana, Albania (1994-2015) [link]
(2018) Economics of Transition, 26 (3): 523-552 (with Drini Imami, Endrit Lami and Edvin Zhllima)
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The supply of construction permits increases in pre-election years if municipal and central-level incumbents are from the same political coalition.
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Construction licensing decreases before elections if the municipality is run by an opposition mayor.
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Left-wing incumbents issue fewer construction permits than right-wing incumbents.
Election Cycles in Mining Licensing: Theory and Evidence from Albania [link]
(2018) Post-Communist Economies, 30 (1): 99-116 (with Drini Imami and Endrit Lami)
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We document a political business cycle effect in a non-fiscal, non-monetary policy variable.
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The number of mining licenses issued increases significantly in pre-election years.
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The supply of mining licenses is lower under left-wing incumbents.
SHORT PIECES
Marginal Effects in Log-Transformed Models: A Trade Application [link]
(2017) Stata Journal, 17 (3): 1-4
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Explains how to compute marginal effects in non-linear models when the independent variable of interest is log-transformed.
Interpreting Logit Models [link]
(2022) Stata Journal, 22 (1): 60-76
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Presents pedagogically a menu of options to interpret the results of logistic regressions.
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Explains how to compute marginal effects, partial effects, (contrasts of) predictive margins, elasticities, and odds and risk ratios.
BOOK CHAPTERS
(2023) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics (ed. Klaus F. Zimmerman), Springer, forthcoming (with Elodie Douarin)
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Provides a summary of the theoretical and empirical literature on the feminisation U in development economics.
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Performs a replication analysis of established results from the literature.
Institutions, Human Capital and Economic Growth [link]
(2021) Palgrave Handbook of Comparative Economics (eds. Elodie Douarin, Oleh Havrylyshyn), Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 461-492 (with Carl H. Knutsen)
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Both property rights institutions and human capital are positively related to economic growth.
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The estimated effect of human capital is larger and more robust than the effect of institutions.
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A broad-based protection of property rights only promotes growth in mid- to high-income economies.
Albania: Economy [link]
(2021) Central and South-Eastern Europe 2022, 22nd edition (ed. Imogen Gladman), Routledge: Abingdon, pp. 46-50 [updated for the 23rd, 24th and 25th editions]
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Provides a comprehensive overview of the Albanian economy and business sector, with a focus on recent developments.
Kosovo: Economy [link]
(2019) Central and South-Eastern Europe 2020, 20th edition (ed. Imogen Gladman), Routledge: Abingdon, pp. 315-319 [updated for the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th editions]
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Provides a comprehensive overview of the Kosovar economy and business sector, with a focus on recent developments.