Economic growth in the 19th and 20th centuries, following the Industrial Revolutions, was much faster than in preceding centuries. This unprecedented global growth coincided with the global proliferation of democracy, with some evidence for bidirectional causation. Macroeconomic forecasts have...

We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction assumes that volatile growth leads to a more efficient reallocation of resources and the adoption of new technologies. However, this can only occur if such productivity-enhancing opportunities are available within society. This availability is...

With rapid industrial upgrading along the global value chain of manufactured goods, China has transformed, within one generation, from an impoverished agrarian society to a middle-income nation as well as the largest manufacturing powerhouse in the world. This article identifies the pattern of...

This paper examines the long-run effects on the spatial distribution of economic activity caused by historical shocks. Using variation in the potential damage intensity of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake across cities in the American West, we show that more severely affected cities experienced...

This paper investigates the effects of a large temporary shock on the agglomeration of economic activity. Using variation in the potential damage intensity of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake across counties in the American West, we find that the earthquake persistently decreased various...

This study contributes to the vast empirical literature on the interplay between income inequality and economic growth in two fronts. First, by using data from the World Inequality Database, potential cross-country heterogeneity, which is concealed in studies that use panel data, is addressed....

The study complements the existing literature on the role of credit constraints in the interplay between income inequality and economic growth. The question "what type of financial development matters for inequality-growth relationship" is answered empirically by adopting a multi-dimensional...

This study re-examines the much studied inequality-growth relationship. An empirical analysis that covers over a hundred countries finds no clear evidence for inequality to boost or dampen the growth of per capita GDP. Furthermore, evidence is found for inequality to promote growth through...