I develop a model of monopolistic competition in which I distinguish between niche markets and mass markets, in the spirit of Holmes and Stevens, 2014. Firms choose between entering a small niche market with high markups or a large mass market with low markups. Entry costs and other distortions...

The new growth literature, using both endogenous growth and neoclassical models, has generated strong claims for the effect of national policies on economic growth. Empirical work on policies and growth has tended to confirm these claims. This paper casts doubt on this claim for strong effects...

Environmental pollution is introduced both as a joint product and as a source of disutility in growth models. The purpose is to explore vital questions such as: is environmental protection compatible with economic growth; is it possible to have sustained growth in the long run without...

Latin American economic development has been perceived as a puzzle. The region has trailed most other world regions over the past half century despite relatively high initial development and school attainment levels. This puzzle, however, can be resolved by considering educational achievement, a...

Following Solow's (2001) recent advice, this paper takes productivity as the left-hand-side variable and offers a cross-country analysis of its determinants. The analysis follows the two-stage methodology, the first of which is devoted to obtaining productivity estimates, and the second stage is...

This paper reviews new growth theories (NGT) from the perspective of developing countries. It shows that despite some views to the contrary, NGT and the growth debate that it spawned have some useful lessons for developing countries. Some of these lessons and ideas were indeed available from...

This is a critical review of the empirical literature on the relationship between violence and economic growth in Colombia, an interesting case study for social scientists studying violence, conflict, crime, and development. We argue that despite the rapid development of this literature and the...

The main objective of this paper is to estimate the output elasticity of foreign direct investment (FDI) and imports in Thailand and in the Philippines during the period 1970ñ1998. Applying a CES generalization of Cobb-Douglas production function, the output response to FDI is the same in both...

The majority of microfinance impact studies focus on finding their effect on a specific group of beneficiaries, in contrast we aim to identify the impact on whole economies (economic growth, and financial sector development and reductions in income inequalities), which is an important policy...

Current and prospective population ageing is likely to reduce substantially Italy's participation rates and per capita income. Although large inflows of foreign labour are expected in the coming decades, they are unlikely to compensate for these negative effects. In this article it is argued...