Labor regulations in India increase the cost of hiring labor for larger establishments and have been cited as an important reason for the lack of mid-sized establishments in the manufacturing sector. Using data for India, we calibrate a two-sector model in which agents differ in their managerial...

For fifteen European countries over the 1970-2004 period we establish that there is a large and persistent agricultural productivity gap, the ratio of labor productivity in non-agriculture to that in agriculture. Correcting for under-reporting of self-employment income in both agriculture and...

This paper quantifies the relative importance of sectoral productivity and labor market distortions for structural change. I use a model in which labor productivity is the product of TFP and human capital in each sector, but distortions generate wedges in wage per efficiency worker across...

This paper deals with a classic development question: how can the process of economic development – transition from stagnation in a traditional technology to industrialization and prosperity with a modern technology – be accelerated? Lewis (1954) and Rostow (1956) argue that the pace of...

This paper analyzes the effect of a fiscal equalization system on the composition of government expenditures of subnational governments. We incorporate vertical equalization transfers with optimal choice of the composition of government expenditures in an endogenous growth model and show that...

Provincial Nominee Programs have increased the role of the provinces in selecting economic class immigrants to Canada. Despite the growing importance of the Nominee programs, relatively little is known about the outcomes of immigrants landing through these programs. In this paper, we use...

We document that immigration to U.S. states has increased the mass of workers at the lower range of the skill distribution. We use this change in skill distribution of workers to analyze the effect of immigration on wages. Our model allows firms to endogenously respond to the immigration-induced...

Within the off-reserve Canadian Aboriginal population, high school graduation rates are about 45 percent lower in Northern communities (North) than the rest of Canada (South). Using data from the Aboriginal Peoples’ Surveys, we document that economic incentives do not appear to be important in...