While Mexico’s growth performance has gradually improved over the past decades, its convergence toward OECD countries has been less rapid than in several other emerging markets. The recent significant reductions in import tariffs should help the economy take fuller advantage of trade and...

Economic growth theory predicts more success for North-South than for South-South agreements. We compare the speed of convergence of the North-South area NAFTA with that of the South-South area SICA and the one of the MERCOSUR. We apply GSL fixed effects and a random effects regression with the...

This paper intends to understand the major institutional factors related to the economic development of the European Union (EU) countries in the last two decades. It provides some contributions to the institutionalist debate of the present crisis of the European Union, and within it, the...

This study aims to give the general frame of scientific research on transaction costs and economic performance, in fact the institutional economics field, emphasizing the necessity of rethinking the neoclassical theory. Recent research on institutions and development proves that, by reducing...

Cluster policy has become a method of choice for policymakers in many countries. Promoting strong localized industries is an appealing perspective for practitioners, as it can be seen as a way to anchor economic activity in regions in an era of globalization. If cluster policy is successful, it...

Levels of development vary widely within countries in the Americas. We argue that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era, when colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country. We present evidence consistent with the view that “bad”...

The concepts social innovation and social entrepreneurship have gained considerable attention both in different fields of academic research and in the context of the development of economic and social policies. However, despite its wide-spread use there does not exist a unique or at least widely...