Greasing the Wheels of Entrepreneurship? The Impact of Regulations and Corruption on Firm Entry

The paper investigates whether the impact of regulations on entrepreneurship depends on corruption. We first test whether regulations robustly deter firm entry into the markets. Our results show that some regulations are indeed important determinants of entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, more procedures required to start a business and larger minimum capital requirements are detrimental to entrepreneurship. Second, we test whether corruption reduces the negative impact of regulations on entrepreneurship in highly regulated economies. Our empirical analysis for a maximum of 43 countries over the period 2003-2005 shows that corruption is beneficial in highly regulated economies. At the maximum level of regulation among our sample of countries, corruption significantly increases entrepreneurial activity. Our results thus provide support for the ‘grease the wheels’ hypothesis.corruption, start-ups, grease the wheels, entrepreneurship, regulation, doing business

Nuclear Spin Dynamics of Ionized Phosphorus Donors in Silicon

We demonstrate the coherent control and electrical readout of the nuclear spins of ionized phosphorus donors in natural silicon. By combining pulsed illumination with coherent electron spin manipulation, we selectively ionize the donor depending on its nuclear spin state, exploiting a spin-dependent recombination process via a spin pair at the Si/SiO2 interface. The nuclear-spin coherence time of the ionized donor is 18 ms, two orders of magnitude longer than in the neutral donor state, rendering the ionized donor a potential resource as a quantum memory. The presented experimental techniques allow for spectroscopy of ionized-donor nuclear spins, increase the sensitivity of electrically detected electron nuclear double resonance by more than two orders of magnitude, and give experimental access to the lifetime of parallel electron spin pairs.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Do IMF and World Bank programs induce government crises An empirical analysis

We examine whether and under which circumstances World Bank projects and IMF programs affect the likelihood of major government crises. Using a sample of more than 90 developing countries over the period 1970-2002, we find that crises are on average more likely in the presence of Bank and Fund involvement. While the effect of the IMF to some extent depends on the model specification, the impact of the World Bank is shown to be robust to the choice of control variables and method of estimation. We also find that governments face an increasing risk to enter a crisis when they remain under IFI programs when the economy performs better. The (economic) conditions present when a new IFI program is initiated, however, do not play a major role for crisis probability. Finally, only programs concluded by the current government affect crises, while those inherited by preceding governments do not. --Political Crisis,International Financial Institutions

Martinho Lutero (1483-1546) e Tomás Müntzer (1489-1525): a justificação teológica da autoridade secular e da revolução política

A Reforma em território alemão possui duas figuras, por vezes próximas entre si, por vezes muito distantes: Lutero e Tomás Müntzer. À medida que foi se envolvendo na vida de seus fiéis, Müntzer foi tomando caminhos próprios, discordando de Lutero que este tomava a "Palavra, em sua realidade objetiva, como constitutiva da Igreja, e afirmando que os verdadeiros fiéis são os que possuem a experiência subjetiva do "Espírito". Também contra Lutero, que defende a resistência à autoridade, mas em questões seculares aceita a tirania, Müntzer, que vê a fé fortemente inserida no social, defende a revolução armada contra os príncipes. Müntzer não nega a graça, mas esta possui papel secundário em seu pensamento, enquanto, para Lutero, ela se coloca no centro de suas preocupações teológica

Electrical Detection of Coherent Nuclear Spin Oscillations in Phosphorus-Doped Silicon Using Pulsed ENDOR

We demonstrate the electrical detection of pulsed X-band Electron Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR) in phosphorus-doped silicon at 5\,K. A pulse sequence analogous to Davies ENDOR in conventional electron spin resonance is used to measure the nuclear spin transition frequencies of the $^{31}$P nuclear spins, where the $^{31}$P electron spins are detected electrically via spin-dependent transitions through Si/SiO$_2$ interface states, thus not relying on a polarization of the electron spin system. In addition, the electrical detection of coherent nuclear spin oscillations is shown, demonstrating the feasibility to electrically read out the spin states of possible nuclear spin qubits.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Effect of Migration on Terror - Made at Home or Imported from Abroad?

We investigate whether the stock of foreigners residing in a country leads to a larger number of terrorist attacks on that country. Our instrument for the stock of foreigners relies on the interaction of two sets of variables. Variation across host-origin-dyads results from structural characteristics between the country of origin and the host, while variation over time makes use of changes in push and pull factors between host and origin countries resulting from natural disasters. Controlling for the levels of these variables themselves and fixed effects for dyads and years, the interaction provides a powerful and excludable instrument. Using data for 20 OECD host countries and 187 countries of origin over the 1980-2010 period we show that the probability of a terrorist attack increases with a larger number of foreigners living in a country. However, this scale effect is not larger than the effect domestic populations have on domestic terror. We find some evidence that terror is systematically imported from countries with large Muslim populations. A larger number of attacks against foreigners in the host country increases the risk of terror from foreigners there. We find that host country policies relating to integration and the rights of foreigners are key to fight terror – stricter policies that exclude foreigners already living in a country increase the risk of terror. High-skilled migrants are associated with a significantly lower risk of terror compared to low-skilled ones, while there is no significant difference between male and female migrants

Globalization, Economic Freedom and Human Rights

Using the KOF Index of Globalization and two indices of economic freedom, we empirically analyze whether globalization and economic liberalization affect governments’ respect for human rights using a panel of 106 countries over the 1981-2004 period. According to our results, physical integrity rights significantly and robustly increase with globalization and economic freedom, while empowerment rights are not robustly affected. Due to the lack of consensus about the appropriate level of empowerment rights as compared to the outright rejection of any violation of physical integrity rights, the global community is presumably less effective in promoting empowerment rights.human rights, globalization, economic freedom, liberalization