The costs of import substitution (IS) as a strategy for industrialization, which was deemed synonymous with economic development by many development economists of the fifties and sixties, were shown to be substantial in the influential and nuanced studies of the seventies and eighties under the...

This paper offers a concise survey on the literature of growth empirics applying to DCs. It is argued that there is a number of important stylised facts of economic growth relevant to DCs which are not included in the corresponding lists of Kaldor and Romer. In contrary to the usual procedure,...

This paper discusses the recent literature on the role of the state in economic development. It concludes that government incentives to enact sound policies are key to economic success. It also discusses the evidence on what happens after episodes of economic and political liberalizations,...

In this paper, I discuss the reasons for Costa Rica's economic performance over the last quarter of a century. Three complementary sets of policies (investments in human capital, careful stabilization, and an intelligent and aggressive integration into the world economy) explain the successful...

Oman and Bahrain are Middle Eastern success stories. There are some key similarities. Both have followed pragmatic development strategies built on a stable foundation of strengthened governance structures and enhanced economic liberalization. These improvements occurred in somewhat different...

Early states like China, India, Italy and Greece have been experiencing more rapid economic growth in recent decades than have later-comers to agriculture and statehood like New Guinea, the Congo, and Uruguay. We show that more rapid growth by early starters has been the norm in economic...

This paper surveys the main issues and controversies in the economic literature on infrastructure in developing countries. Section I reviews the evidence on the role of infrastructure in promoting economic growth. It is argued that, although infrastructure may be more important for growth than...

This paper provides empirical evidence that there is no absolute convergence between the GDP per capita of the developing countries since 1950. Relying upon recent econometric methodologies (nonstationary long-memory models, wavelet models and time-varying factor representation models), we show...