This paper extends the standard neoclassical model by considering a technology sector through which an economy with limited human capital attempts to catch up with a given 'locomotive' pushing exogenously technical progress. In periods of technological stagnation, economies close enough to the...

We formulate a model to explain why the lack of political competition may stifle economic performance and use the United States as a testing ground for the model’s predictions, exploiting the 1965 Voting Rights Act which helped break the near monpoly on political power of the Democrats in...