This study investigates whether HIV prevalence rates impact TFP growth. We construct a panel of data on general macroeconomic indicators and HIV prevalence rates for over 100 countries, for the years 1994 through 2002, and estimate the impact of HIV on TFP growth rates for each country. We find...

In work published in the 1980's Yujro Hayami and I elaborated a theory of institutional innovations in which institutional changes are induced, on the demand side, by changes in relative resource endowments and technical change and, on the supply side, by changes in cultural endowments and...

A simple two-sector endogenous growth model of government spending and growth is developed with a producing and a lobbying sector. Lobbyists divert government spending for private gains. One key innovation is this: With democratization, information (and power) becomes more diffused (public),...

This paper reviews recent research on the determinants of educational outcomes, and the impact of those outcomes on other socioeconomic phenomena. More specifically, it addresses three questions: 1. What school policies are most cost-effective in producing students with particular cognitive...

Disenchantment with the Washington Consensus has led to an emphasis on growth diagnostics. In the case of Brazil, the literature suggests three main factors impeding growth: low domestic savings, a shortage of skilled workers, and lack of investment in the country’s transportation...

This paper reviews the "vent-for-surplus" model of agricultural development, in which access to foreign markets allows "surplus productive capacity" to be exploited. The "indirect effects" of trade contribute to long-term economic growth even after the direct gains from trade are realized. How...