In an inuential article Tornell and Lane (1999) considered an economy populatedby multiple powerful groups in which property rights in the formal sectorof production are not protected. They obtained conditions under which thegroups appropriate output from the formal sector in order to invest it...

In Romania, the communist regime promoted an official policy of gender equality for morethan 40 years, providing equal access to education and employment, and restricting paydifferentiation based on gender. After its fall in December 1989, the promotion of equalopportunities and treatment for...

Following the collapse of the socialist systems the countries of Middle- and Eastern Europefollowed their way to democracy and a market economy with different speed and sequencing.The related political-economy issues gave rise to an ongoing debate on the question as towhether the introduction of...

The determinants of government responsiveness to its citizens is a key issue in politicaleconomy. Here, we develop a model based on the solution of political agency problems.Having a more informed and politically active electorate strengthens incentives for governmentsto be responsive. This...

This paper extends and modifies the Keynesian critique of inflation targetingwith reference to stabilisation policy in emerging market economies. The IMF‘basic monetary programming framework’ for developing countries usesgovernment borrowing and the exchange rate as policy instruments in...

The distribution dynamics of incomes across Indian states are examined us-ing the entire income distribution rather than using standard regression ap-proaches.The period 1965 to 1997 exhibits twin-peaked dynamics: there aretwo income convergence clubs at 50% and 125% of the national...

This paper provides unheard direct evidence that comparisons exert a significant effect onsubjective well-being. It also evaluates the relative importance of different types ofbenchmarks...

This note investigates the effects of the education level, product market rigidities andemployment protection legislation on growth. It exploits macro-panel data for OECDcountries...

We use data from over 20,000 firms in 60 countries to identify constraints on the growth offirms. We interpret managers´ answers to survey questions on the extent to which variousaspects of their external environment inhibit the performance of their firm as measuring theshadow cost of...

We analyze a large stratified random sample of firms that provide us with measures ofperformance and each firm’s top manager’s perception of the severity of businessenvironment constraints faced by his/her firm. Unlike most existing studies that rely onexternal and aggregated proxy measures of...