In this paper we document the stylized facts about the relationship between international oil price swings, sovereign risk and macroeconomic performance of oil-exporting economies. We show that even though being a bigger oil producer decreases sovereign risk–because it increases a...

The relationship between the abundance of natural resources and socio-economic performance has been a main object of study in the economic development field since Adam Smith. Dominated by the verification of the so called curse of natural resource, the mainstream literature on the topic has been...

This paper explores the emergence and evolution of social contestation over mineral resources in Zimbabwe through three decades and successive models of state engagement around extractives, revenue mobilization and development planning. It investigates patterns of contestation and outcomes...

This paper presents an integrated overview of the literature linking institutions, financial development and economic growth. From the large body of research on institutional development, the paper first selects those contributions that make it possible to study the role of institutional...

This paper provides new evidence on the convergence process of energy, water and food per capita consumption levels for 108 countries from 1971 to 2018, using a common data set, with VAR and panel data approach. We establish a new notion of multivariate sigma and beta-convergence. The results...

Road congestion and air pollution are key challenges for quality of life in urban settings. This research leverages highly disaggregated crowdsourced data from Latin America to study the effect of road congestion on levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter in four of...

Recent calls for reform of the rules of origin in preferential trade arrangements such as the GSP as well as in many free trade agreements between developed and developing countries have focused almost exclusively on the need to relax the requirements of these rules. Without fundamentally...