Real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) decreases by 10–12% 5 years after a coup and the effect persists. This result is mostly driven by a fall in investment and a weakening of the rule of law, along with an increase in repression. Preventing coups can be seen as a significant development issue, and though the international community has taken steps to discourage coups, further consideration of anti-coup policies seems well-warranted.

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Why was it so difficult for 19th century Mexico to develop the institutions necessary for a modern state? Efforts made by the Mexican government to establish control can provide lessons for today's developing nations. By examining these historical dynamics, the Mexican example provides insights into why it is so difficult for developing nations to build effective state capacity and foster economic development.

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The presence of gender disparity in de jure rules across the world is relatively well-known. Many studies show that this disparity is detrimental to female labor participation. This study focuses instead on the time costs and burdens associated with government regulations for firms with females amongst the ownership. The effects of increased time costs and regulatory burdens are largest in countries with the most disparity in de jure rules, but also persist in the most de jure equal countries.

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Price-theoretic microeconomics, as developed in the Chicago, UCLA, and London-Vienna traditions is integral to economics education. There is a need for serious discussion about the role of price theory in economics education and a need to raise the relative status of price theory within the academy more generally.

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Economic freedom is positively related to measures of growth, income, investment, and inequality. The level of economic freedom appears to be simply unrelated to inequality, though increases in economic freedom may correlate with higher inequality.

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A growing literature quantifies cross-country variation in Constitutional compliance and explores its determinants. Successful constitutionalism is characterized by formal Constitutional provisions actually binding political agents in practice. Assembly experiences are positively associated with Constitutional compliance. However, breaking them down into tax veto and spending prerogative experiences, the former is positively related to compliance, while the latter is negatively related.

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Three important lessons emerge from recent experience in Latin America: (1) keeping the central bank after dollarizing is an unnecessary institutional vulnerability that facilitates compulsive de-dollarization, (2) public opinion offers the most important defense of dollarization against populist attempts at reversal, and (3) even if dollarization is not supported with structural reforms (or such reforms are reversed), it remains superior to the counterfactual of no reforms with persistent, high, and volatile inflation.

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