In this paper we revisit the relationship between institutions, human capital and development. We argue that empirical … models that treat institutions and human capital as exogenous are misspecified both because of the usual omitted variable … focus on historically-determined differences in human capital and control for the effect of institutions, the impact of …

We exploit differences in the mortality rates faced by European colonialists to estimate the effect of institutions on … different associated institutions. The choice of colonization strategy was, at least in part, determined by whether Europeans … likely to set up worse (extractive) institutions. These early institutions persisted to the present. We document evidence …

the central role of political and economic institutions, as well as the endogenous evolution of technology, in shaping the … context of economic and political institutions, and also that the focus on the share of top incomes can give a misleading …

, and - over the following 40 years - social conflict. This result is robust across alternative measures of conflict and is … period, a faster increase in population made social conflict more likely, probably because it increased competition for …