Discussion Papers

Argentina’s progress towards legal equality for women has been slower than in most other Latin American countries. In 1971 Argentina’s score of 31 on...

Since 2017, the United Arab Emirates have introduced several gender legal reforms after decades of poor performance on economic and social equality...

We study the role of multinationals (MNCs) in facilitating firm-level and aggregate structural transformation. Using a stylized model of multinational...

In this paper, we explore the consequences of low nominal interest rates for credit supply, macroeconomic outcomes and policy. Using the protracted...

In the three-quarters of a century since Pakistan’s independence, parliament has adopted various laws in a bid to improve women’s legal rights. Many...

This paper investigates how consumers and investors react to the standardized disclosure of data privacy practices. Since December 2020, Apple has...

Using a representative survey of U.S. lawyers, we document a sizeable gender gap in early partnership aspirations, which explains half of the later...

Competitive challenges and regulatory uncertainty associated with the green transition should incentivize firms to innovate and to sway regulatory...

Investors have limited and time-varying attention. These constraints are heterogeneous across investors, which can create asymmetric information and...

In the sixty years since its independence Burundi has taken some steps to improve the legal standing of women in the economy and society. These steps...

Zimbabwe has introduced some legal reforms towards women’s rights in the first three dozen years since its independence in 1980, though these changes...

In 2023, Zambia ranked 17th among African countries on the World Bank’s Women Business and the Law index, a notable decline over a half century. The...

This paper uses legal board size requirements to test whether board size affects firm performance and value. Since 1976, the minimum size of German...

Rwanda is among Africa’s leaders in providing equal opportunity between women and men in the economy. Progress in achieving this substantial progress...

Innovativity – an economy's ability to produce the innovations that drive total factor productivity (TFP) growth – requires both ideas and the ability...

We find some evidence of regulatory convergence in four distinct areas of business activity over the 2005-2019 period. This convergence is most...