Research

Current Unpublished Papers

“Democracy, Inequality, and Antitrust.” With Michael Allen and Ken Scheve.

Learning to Love Government? Technological Change and the Political Economy of Higher Education (with Carlos Lastra-Anadon and Ken Scheve)

When Inclusive Institutions Failed: Lessons from the Democratic Revolutions of the Middle Ages

Books

The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today, Princeton University Press, 2020.

Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe, Princeton University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation, 2016.

States of Credit: Size, Power, and the Development of European Polities.  Princeton University Press, Economic History of the Western World Series, 2011.

Public Debt and the Birth of the Democratic State: France and Great Britain, 1688-1789, Cambridge University Press, Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions series, 224 p., 2003. 

Articles

Equal Treatment and the Inelasticity of Tax Policy to Rising Inequality, Comparative Political Studies, 2022 (with Ken Scheve)

Democracy, Autocracy, and Emergency Threats: Lessons for COVID-19 From the Last Thousand Years, International Organization, 2020

Origins of Early Democracy American Political Science Review, 2020 (with Ali Ahmed)

How Large Are the Political Costs of Fiscal Austerity? Journal of Politics, 2019 (with Eric Arias)

Wealth Inequality and Democracy  Annual Review of Political Science, 2017  (with Ken Scheve)

“What We Can Learn From the Early History of Sovereign Debt” Explorations in Economic History, 2016

“Representation and Consent: Why They Arose in Europe and Not Elsewhere” Annual Review of Political Science, 2016

“Was Weber Right? The Role of Urban Autonomy in Europe’s Rise” American Political Science Review, 2014.

“Technology and the Era of the Mass Army” (with Massimiliano Onorato and Ken Scheve) Journal of Economic History, 2014

“What Democracy Does (and Doesn’t Do) for Basic Services: School Fees, School Inputs, and African Elections” (With Robin Harding) Journal of Politics, 2014.

“Democracy, War, and Wealth: Evidence of Two Centuries of Inheritance Taxation”(with Ken Scheve)American Political Science Review, 2012.

“When Distance Mattered: Geographic Scale and the Development of European Representative Assemblies” American Political Science Review, 2010.

“The Conscription of Wealth: Mass Warfare and the Demand for Progressive Taxation.” (appendix) International Organization, 2010(with Ken Scheve).

“Institutions, Partisanship, and Inequality in the Long Run”, World Politics, vol.61, no.2, 2009(with Ken Scheve).

“Publicity of Debate and the Incentive to Dissent: Evidence from the US Federal Reserve”, Economic Journal, 2008(with Ellen Meade) 

“Polarization and Publicity: Rethinking the Benefits of Deliberative Democracy”, Journal of Politics, vol.69, no.1, pp.59-72, 2007

“Cities, Constitutions, and Sovereign Borrowing in Europe, 1274-1785”, International Organization, vol.61, pp.489-525, 2007

“Partisan Politics and Public Debt: The Importance of the Whig Supremacy for Britain’s Financial Revolution” European Review of Economic History, vol.11, pp.123-153, 2007

“The Political Economy of Religion and Social Insurance in the United States, 1910-1939”, Studies in American Political Development vo1.20 pp.132-159, 2006 (with Ken Scheve).

“Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance”, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, vol.1, no.3, pp.255-286, 2006 (with Ken Scheve).

 “Democracy and Education Spending in Africa” American Journal of Political Science 49(2), pp. 343-58, 2005

“The Role of Democracy in Uganda’s Move to Universal Primary Education” Journal of Modern African Studies 43(1), pp. 53-73, 2005

“Open-Door or Closed-Door? Transparency in Domestic and International Bargaining” International Organization, 58(4), pp. 667-704, 2004

“Transparency, Democratic Accountability, and the Economic Consequences of Monetary Institutions” American Journal of Political Science 47(3), pp. 389-402, 2003

“The Limits of Delegation: Veto Players, Central Bank Independence, and the Credibility of Monetary Policy” (with Philip Keefer)  American Political Science Review 97(3), pp. 407-23, 2003

“When are Monetary Commitments Credible? Parallel Agreements and the Sustainability of Currency Unions” (with Dominique Guillaume) British Journal of Political Science. 32, 119-146, 2002

“Private Investment and Political Institutions” Economics & Politics 14(1), pp. 41-63, 2002

“Checks and Balances, Private Information, and the Credibility of Monetary Commitments” (with Philip Keefer) International Organization 56(4), pp. 751-74, 2002

“Credible Commitment in Early Modern Europe: North and Weingast Revisited” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 18(1), pp.155-86, 2002

Book Chapters

“Democracy” Handbook of Historical Political Economy.

Biogeography, Writing, and the Origins of the State, Handbook of Historical Economics, (2021).

“Why Did Public Debt Originate in Europe?”, in Andrew Monson and Walter Scheidel (eds.) Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, Cambridge University Press, 2015.

“Does Transparency Make a Difference? The Example of the European Council of Ministers” , in David Heald and Christopher Hood (eds.) Transparency, the Key to Better Governance?, British Academy/Oxford University Press.

“Communication, Coordination and Common Knowledge in Monetary Policy: Implications for the Euro Zone”  in Robert Franzese, Peter Mooslechner, and Martin Schuerz (eds.) Institutional Conflicts and Complementarities. Monetary Policy and Wage Bargaining Institutions in EMU, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.