"Are natural resources a blessing or a curse? Bravo-Ortega and De Gregorio present a model in which natural resources have a positive effect on the level of income and a negative effect on its growth rate. The positive and permanent effect on income implies a welfare gain. There is a growth...

This paper addresses the growth, welfare, and distributional effects of credit markets. We construct a general equilibrium model where human capital is the engine of growth and individuals differ in their education abilities. We argue that the existence of credit markets encourages...

This paper examines the empirical relationship between long–run growth and the degree of financial development, proxied by the ratio of bank credit to the private sector as a fraction of GDP. We find that this proxy enters significantly and with a positive sign in growth regressions on a large...

This paper studies the effects that borrowing constraints have on savings and growth and argues that, though they increase savings, their effect on growth is ambiguous. Empirical evidence on the extent of borrowing constraints as well as savings, investment, human capital accumulation and growth...