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Race v. Suffrage: The Determinants of Development in Mississippi

Bertocchi, Graziella; Dimico, Arcangelo - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2011

1950s. Finally, we turn to the determinants of a broad array of development indicators for the year 1960 and for the 1960 …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009321839

Are Endowments Fate?

Nugent, Jeffrey B; Robinson, James A - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2002

In recent theories of comparative development the role of institutional differences has been crucial. Yet what explains … comparative institutional evolution? We investigate this issue by studying the coffee exporting economies of Latin America. While … homogeneous in many ways, they experienced radically different paths of economic (and political) development which is conventional …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005123696

White Elephants

Robinson, James A; Torvik, Ragnar - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2002

Underdevelopment is thought to be about lack of investment, and many political economy theories can account for this. Yet, there has been much investment in developing countries. The problem has been that investment growth has not led to output growth. We therefore need to explain not simply...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005123875

Economic Backwardness in Political Perspective

Acemoglu, Daron; Robinson, James A - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2002

We construct a simple model where political elites may block technological and institutional development, because of a … replaced. Fearing replacement, political elites are unwilling to initiate change, and may even block economic development. We … show that elites are unlikely to block development when there is a high degree of political competition, or when they are …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005124137

Making Autocracy Work

Besley, Timothy J.; Kudamatsu, Masayuki - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2007

One of the key goals of political economy is to understand how institutional arrangements shape policy outcomes. This paper studies a comparatively neglected aspect of this - the forces that shape heterogeneous performance of autocracies. The paper develops a simple theoretical model of...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005136611

Slavery, Education, and Inequality

Bertocchi, Graziella; Dimico, Arcangelo - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2010

We investigate the impact of slavery on the current performances of the US economy. Over a cross section of counties, we find that the legacy of slavery does not affect current income per capita, but does affect current income inequality. In other words, those counties that displayed a higher...

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008680759

Divide and Rule or the Rule of the Divided? Evidence from Africa

Michalopoulos, Stelios; Papaioannou, Elias - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2010

-specific pre-colonial institutions in shaping comparative regional development in Africa. We utilize information on the spatial … we document a positive cross-sectional association between national institutions and regional economic development … regional development. The positive within country effect of pre-colonial institutions also obtains in regions of partitioned …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008683528

Political and Economic Institutions of China and Their Influences

Xu, Cheng-Gang - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2014

in the world in a few decades. Now China is returning to its historical past. To understand China’s development, and to …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011145429

A Political Economy Theory of the Soft Budget Constraint

Robinson, James A; Torvik, Ragnar - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2005

Why do soft budget constraints exist and persist? In this paper we argue that the prevalence of soft budget constraints can be best explained by the political desirability of softness. We develop a political economy model where politicians cannot commit to policies that are not ex post optimal....

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005114300

Making Progress on Foreign Aid

Qian, Nancy - C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers - 2014

population well-being and facilitate economic and institutional development. The empirical evidence on its benefits is mixed and …

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011083342