All since the rise of the first civilizations, economic development has been closely intertwined with the evolution of states. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on state history and long-run economic development in four ways. First, we extend and complete the state history index...

Research on economic growth suggests that the era of colonization has had an impact on the levels of economic development of countries around the globe. However, why some countries were colonized early, some late, and others not at all, and what effect these differences have had on current...

Do Special Economic Zones (SEZs) increase local economic activities in developing countries? This paper explores this question by examining the aggregate district economic effects of SEZs, a place-based development policy in Ethiopia. The study relies on time and district variation in the...