In medieval times, most people identified with religious values and aggregate income and productivity grew at glacier speed. In the 20th century, religion played a much lesser role in daily life and income and productivity grew at high and unprecedented rates. The present paper develops a simple...

This chapter examines the relationship between health and economic growth. Across countries, income per capita is highly correlated with health, as measured by life expectancy or a number of other indicators. Within countries, there is also a correlation between people’s health and income....

This work shows the asymmetric effect of the reduction in transportation costs across different sectors in the process of the Great Divergence. Specifically, the analysis indicates that reductions in transportation costs of industrial goods enhance convergence of the growth rates of trading...

This paper integrates a simple theory of identity choice into a framework of endogenous economic growth to explain how secularization can be both cause and consequence of economic development. A secular identity allows an individual to derive more pleasure from consumption than religious...

In this paper, we analyze how skilled migration contributes to TFP growth in the sending countries when diaspora effects in technology diffusion are introduced. To investigate this issue, we start from a previous paper by Vandenbussche, Aghion and Meghir (2006), who examine the contribution of...

The present paper raises and analyzes two new issues that so far have received vey little attention in the literature. The first one is the relation between economic growth and internation laboe market. The second is how workers choose the limiting and lenght of emigration.

The present paper raises and analyzes two new issues that so far have received vey little attention in the literature. The first one is the relation between economic growth and internation laboe market. The second is how workers choose the limiting and lenght of emigration.