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This paper investigates the institutional causes of China's Great Famine. It presents two empirical findings: 1) in 1959, when the famine began, food production was almost three times more than population subsistence needs; and 2) regions with higher per capita food production that year suffered...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008646472
This study examines how the economic effects of elections in rural China depend on voter heterogeneity, for which we proxy with religious fractionalization. We first document religious composition and the introduction of village-level elections for a nearly nationally representative sample of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010652304
This paper argues that openness to new, unconventional and disruptive ideas has a first-order impact on creative innovations-innovations that break new ground in terms of knowledge creation. After presenting a motivating model focusing on the choice between incremental and radical innovation,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010739732
In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argues that a country's national income depends on its labor productivity, which in turn hinges on the division of labor. But why are some countries able to take advantage of the division of labor and become rich, while others fail to do so and remain poor?...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010951078
We analyze the joint dynamics of religious beliefs, scientific progress and coalitional politics along both religious and economic lines. History offers many examples of the recurring tensions between science and organized religion, but as part of the paper's motivating evidence we also uncover...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011262916
Is social capital long lasting? Does it affect long term economic performance? To answer these questions we test Putnam's conjecture that today marked differences in social capital between the North and South of Italy were due to the culture of independence fostered by the free city-states...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005778376
from model estimation and calibration that entrepreneurial inputs and human capital externalities are essential for …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009147836
We use a newly assembled sample of 1,503 regions from 82 countries to compare the speed of per capita income convergence within and across countries. Regional growth is shaped by similar factors as national growth, such as geography and human capital. Regional convergence is about 2.5% per year,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950694
through their various impacts on changes in production prices and wages. In a first stage, the estimation of a regression …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950712
frame-34 countries with GDP data starting between 1870 and 1896-estimation with country fixed effects is more appropriate … "iron-law" rate of 2%. In the post-1960s panel, estimation without country fixed effects supports the modernization … hypothesis, in the form of positive effects of per capita GDP and schooling on democracy and maintenance of law and order. The …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010951080