negatively related to civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. In the reduced form regression they find that higher rainfall is … associated with less conflict. Ciccone (2010) claims that this conclusion is 'erroneous' and argues that higher rainfall levels … are actually linked to more conflict. In this paper we show that the results in Ciccone's paper are based on incorrect …

opportunities depends on the nature of institutions. When institutions are strong, new opportunities or windfalls can have positive … effects. But when institutions are weak they can have negative effects. We present a simple model to illustrate how … comparative statics are conditional on the nature of institutions and show how this perspective helps to unify a large number of …

transportation improvements converged to create city growth. We assess the impact of institutions on growth by allowing two ways for … institutions to affect growth. Institutions can directly affect growth, or it can impact on trade, which in turn affects growth …. Once we separately quantify the link from institutions to trade, and trade to growth, the independent effect of …

We propose a model of cycles of distrust and conflict. Overlapping generations of agents from two groups sequentially … a sequence of bad actions originated. Assuming that both sides are not extremists, spirals of distrust and conflict get … this mechanism can be useful in interpreting cycles of ethnic conflict and international war, and how it also emerges in …

We estimate the respective contributions of institutions, geography, and trade in determining income levels around the … world, using recently developed instruments for institutions and trade. Our results indicate that the quality of … institutions trumps' everything else. Once institutions are controlled for, measures of geography have at best weak direct effects …

which geography may matter directly for growth, controlling for economic policies and institutions, as well as the effects … of geography on policy choices and institutions. We find that location and climate have large effects on income levels …