Identification of the impact of political and economic institutions on economic development requires the use of valid instruments for institutional quality. Recent empirical studies use colonial settler mortality rates as such an instrument. Our paper develops a more eclectic theory of colonial...

In this article we estimate a time-series model of excess liquidity in the Egyptian banking sector. While financial liberalisation and financial stability are found to have reduced excess liquidity, these effects have been offset by an increase in the number of violent political incidents...

In this article we develop a model to identify determinants of macroeconomic integration in the African Franc Zone and in Dollar-pegging Caribbean countries (including members of the East Caribbean Currency Union). These two groups of countries each comprise states using several different local...

In less developed countries, there is often a low correlation between survey-based measures of interpersonal trust and experimental measures. This has caused doubt about the reliability of trust measures used to explain variations in levels of socio-economic development. Using data from rural...

The impact of aid on the macro-economy is ambiguous. Aid that increases expenditure may cause real exchange rate appreciation. However, if the capital stock in the traded goods sector rises then output might not contract, and if investment in the non-traded goods sector is relatively productive...