The notion that lack of knowledge undermines the economic performance of African countries is deeply and widely held to be true. Yet evidence for the basis of that truth is few and far in-between. This paper first describes a production function approach to the creation of knowledge of African...

The current research emphasis on institutions as key determinants of economic performance, rather than on resources and resource productivity, has uncovered important questions for further research. For example, if institutions are central to economic performance, then what explains observed...

This paper analyzes the genericity of bifurcations of one-parameter families of smooth (C1) vector fields that are embedded in an underlying multi-dimensional parameter space. Bifurcations with crossing equilibrium loci are called 'split bifurcations.' They include, for example, the pitchfork...

Institutions either promote or constrain economic performance, but which parts of institutions advance or restrict performance, and why do economies sharing similar institutions sometimes perform differently? This paper is a modest attempt at addressing a small part of these questions. It...

There exists no consensus regarding the definition and the measure of persistence. We aim to spark research interests to address the lack of a standard definition. This paper reviews this issue and proposes an informal definition to unemployment persistence.