Holding Up the Empire: Colombia, American Oil Interests, and the 1921 Urrutia-Thomson Treaty
研究美国为何补贴跨国公司进入其殖民地，以1921年条约为例，检验帝国陷阱假说，发现哥伦比亚威胁标准石油的沉没投资，促使跨国公司推动美国参议院批准赔偿条约。
Why did the United States subsidize American multinationals' entry into countries treated as informal colonies? We study a classic case of American imperialism, the 1903 U.S. support of Panama's secession from Colombia and subsequent U.S. payment of the 1921 reparations that opened Colombia's oil fields to Standard Oil. We test Noel Maurer's (2013) empire trap hypothesis quantitatively. Archival and econometric evidence documents Colombia's threat to Standard Oil's sunk investment, which induced the multinational to build a supermajority coalition in the U.S. Senate to back a reparations treaty. Results support the empire trap hypothesis but point out important qualifications.