The purpose of this paper is to develop a testable theory, the interaction thesis, capable of explaining why do we observe differences in economic stability and growth rates between various countries; or - the same thing - why less efficient countries do not duplicate economic policies of more...

Conventional R&D-based growth theory suggests that productivity growth is positively correlated with population size or population growth, an implication which is hard to see in the data. Here we integrate microfounded fertility and schooling into an otherwise standard R&D-based growth model. We...