I explain the often underappreciated political economy aspects of special economic zones.

Cited in BBC Vietnamese

I explain the main pitfalls of opportunity zones.

Cited in the Yale Daily News

Clips from teh Startup-Societies Summit at GMU, Arlington, VA.

Videos from the GMU summit.

I discuss the negative and positive conseqeuence of special economic zones.

My Talk at the Chapman Symposium on Special Jurisdictions

I talk about the political economy aspects of special economic zones.

My talk at the Startup Foundation's Summit in San Francisco in August, 2017

Lotta Moberg, an analyst on William Blair’s Dynamic Allocation team, notes that the big issue being fought over, namely Ukraine’s membership in NATO, is one neither side wants.

Quoted in Barron's on Russia

Flagging my participation in Macro Matters, part of the CFA Society Chicago podcast.

Macro Matters with the CFA Society Chicago

This link takes you to the excellent podcast produced by CFA Society Chicago.

Check out the CFA Society Chicago Podcast

We show under what conditions a special economic zone will succeed at spurring development and at sparking broader liberalization.

Special economic zones and liberalization avalanches

While previously addressing issues of double taxation, the OECD shifted to restricting tax competition and increasing automatic exchanges of tax information. We analyze the reasons for this shift in policy focus.

Cartelizing Taxes - Understanding the OECD’s Campaign against ‘Harmful Tax Competition

This paper analyzes the concept of municipal bankruptcy in a comparative framework with commercial bankruptcy. Because of significant institutional differences between the two forms of corporation, we argue that it is impossible to construct a bridge between them.

Default Without Capital Account - The Economics of Municipal Bankruptcy

A broad look at export competitiveness of the Dominican Republic, where I contribute with a perspective on special economic zones.

How to sustain export dynamism by reducing duality in the Dominican Republic A World Bank trade competitiveness diagnostic

In Swedish. We perform a literature review of the research on how some counties have pursued efficiency enhancing welfare reforms. We find several clear findings of the political, bureacratic, and economic prerequisites for successful reforms.

Hur svårt kan det vara? Nio frågor och svar om reformer i västerländska demokratier (How Hard Can It Be? Nine Questions and Answers on Reform in Western Democracies)

This paper presents export processing zones (EPZs) as a rent-seeking tool with the appearance of a development policy. My model indicates that EPZs do not benefit an economy via backward linkages but through marginal improvements to a country’s trade regime.

Liberalizing Rent-Seeking - How Export Processing Zones Can Save or Sink an Economy

The purpose of this paper is to show how special economic zones (SEZs) can be applied to refugee camps. Zones are powerful tools for investors to act like institutional entrepreneurs, who promote institutional reform by pursuing exemptions from government constraints and taxes or by advocating for reform. Refugee SEZs (R-SEZs) would similarly allow for institutional entrepreneurs to promote broader immigration reform.

Refugee Special Economic Zones

Despite decades of international experience, there remains no blueprint for successful special economic zone policies. We propose a ‘robust political economy’ framework that divides political economy problems into those of inadequate knowledge and distorted incentives.

It worked in China, so why not in Africa? The political economy challenge of Special Economic Zones

This article explores the benefits and downsides of special economic zones, and analyzes their economic and political impact on the United States. It argues that, though widely implemented in the country, the zones have likely done more harm than good for the United States.

The Political Economy of Special Economic Zones - Lessons for the United States

This paper is a first attempt to apply a robust political economy framework to explain when Special Economic Zones can contribute to economic development. The framework can be applied to judge their potential efficacy, something that orthodox studies of country features such as natural resources, infrastructure, and zone location fail to do.

The Political Economy of Special Economic Zones

The political economy of state-provided targeted benefits

Today’s ultra-low interest rates are anything but ‘natural’.

Opinion piece in the Financial Times

Python automated testing in brief and a few principles to keep in mind.

My Chat with Mark Lutter of the Charter Cities Institute

High-level thoughts on the risk and opportunities in a pandemic world.

Some musings on investing in the time of covid

A debate from two sides of the ideological spectrum on what should be done in the US covid economy.

Conversation with Stephen Moore and Randall Wray on the current economy

A conversation about the logic, past and potential future of special economic zones.

Featured on Economic Rockstar

A conversation about NEOM, the city that Saudi Arabia is building from scratch, and what our knowledge on special economic zones says about its potential.

All Posts

Cited in BBC Vietnamese

Cited in the Yale Daily News

Videos from the GMU summit.

My Talk at the Chapman Symposium on Special Jurisdictions

My talk at the Startup Foundation's Summit in San Francisco in August, 2017