We develop a political-economic model of foreign aid allocation. Each ethnic group in the donor country lobbies the government for allocating more aid to its country of origin, and the government accepts contributions from lobby groups. Initial per-capita income of the recipients and those of...

We consider the contribution of public education to growth through its role in building social capital—instilling common values and norms that lower economic transaction costs and reduce social tensions between different population groups. This is modeled in the context of a political economy...