Abstract We find an undiscovered effect of geography on the choices of writing system in ancient civilizations that in turn drive their courses of historical evolution. The history of the ancient civilizations was driven by the causation spirals generated by the writing system chosen by their...

Do political decentralisation and inter state competition favour innovation and growth? There has long been a lively debate surrounding this question, going back to David Hume and Immanuel Kant. This book is a new attempt to test its veracity. The existing literature tends to assume that the...

type="main" xml:lang="en" <p>In this article, we examine empirically both the direct and indirect links between ethnic fragmentation and economic growth. We find that both ethnic fractionalization and polarization are negatively associated with growth if considered in isolation; an effect that is...</p>

The shadow price of a productive good is equal to its money price less its marginal product. As more of the good is consumed, its shadow price rises because of diminishing productivity and the consumer's full income also rises because the marginal product is positive. The direction of the...