After evening out all the benefits and costs, the overall optimal level of democracy is about 3.2, on a scale of 1 to 7. On average, fully dictatorial countries have a conditioned growth rate of ¨C1.113 percent, fully democratic countries have a conditioned growth rate of 1.146 while countries...

In this paper, we build a simple model to explain the choice of migration method and the root causes of international human trafficking (IHT). Our analyses result in several implications on the problems related to IHT. First, IHT is driven by poverty and international productivity/living quality...

In this paper, we formulate a political system that can satisfy certain desirable characteristics that include democratic participation, serving for universal interest, public sector efficiency, and sustainable by incentive compatibility and virtuous cycles. The system comprises a set of rules...

Despite decades of experience and research, the effects of minimum wage legislation (MWL) on long-run economic performance have rarely been studied since Stigler’s (1946) classic exposition about the shortcomings of MWL. In this study, we use a novel method to estimate the magnitude and...

In this paper, we institute the role of entrepreneurs in technical progress and the mechanism of tools multiplication into the Cobb Douglas Production Function. After the advancements, the technology component in the function has technical meaning and is potentially observable. Unlimited...

This paper delivers a simple model to generalize the successful trade liberalization experiences in East Asian countries as a strategy for attaining inclusive and sustained economic growth. The sequential approach, based on preserving existing production units while liberalizing export-oriented...

In this paper, we build a simple model to integrate the findings and/or hypotheses in the diverse literatures related to economic development and growth. They include the literature on institutions attributed to Douglas North (1990), on entrepreneurs, innovations and technical progress...

It is a common assumption that regions within the same country converge to approximately the same steady-state income levels. The so-called absolute convergence hypothesis focuses on initial income levels to account for the variability in income growth among regions. Empirical data seem to...

This paper investigates the connection between resource abundance and innovation, as a transmission mechanism that can elucidate part of the resource curse hypothesis; i.e. the observed negative impact of resource wealth on income growth. We develop a variation of the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans model...

We examine empirically the effect of natural resource abundance on economic growth. We find that natural resources have a negative impact on growth when considered in isolation, but a positive impact on growth when including in the analysis other variables such as corruption, investments,...