Many papers have shown that U.S. earnings inequalityincreased substantially from about 1980 to around 1996.1Recent and careful studies agree that a basic explanationfor increased earnings inequality is the rising returns tohuman capital resulting from new technology. These risingreturns have...

This paper discusses some aspects of the changing relationship between thestudy of economic history and development economics. Forty years ago thesubjects seemed to be quite closely linked in the sense that senior figuresstraddled both areas, the development history of the advanced countries...

Economists generally assume that the state has sufffcient institutional capacityto support markets and levy taxes, assumptions which cannot be taken forgranted in many states, neither historcally nor in today’s developing world.Our paper develops a framework where "policy choices" in market...

Joe is one a small group of influential economists who brought theorizing aboutdevelopment processes to a new level. In trying to understand the reasons why low pooreconomies remain so, he was among the first to appreciate the importance of informationand contracting issues. His seminal...

The emergence of new economic activities is the driving force of economic development. The development of such activities is often ‘lumpy’, manifesting itself in rapid growth of particular regions or sectors. Recognition of these facts requires a reorientation of the analytical frameworks...

Does fractionalization change over time? If so, are there any substantial implications foreconomic performance? To answer such questions, we construct a new panel data set withfractionalization measures for 26 former communist countries covering the period from 1989to 2002...