Over the last couple of decades, it has become a commonplace to claim that “institutions matter” for economic development. Yet, institutions are not exogenous but the result of hu-man action. It is argued here that the values and norms held by substantial parts of society’s members are an...

The aim of the paper is to analyze how corruption contributes to the spread of shadow economy and damages viable economic development of any country. The unfreedoms that are created under the conditions of illegal transactions and corrupt practices considerably limit the opportunities of...

The hypothesis is that Pareto and Kaldor-Hicks Efficiency have an aspect of sustainability in relation to inequality. The analysis finds efficient situations reached increasing inequality as diminishing in the long term effective demand in a larger measure than counterbalancing increases thanks...

The abrupt est of rapid economic growth in Malaysia has created a new mood of insecurity. However, "economic insecurity" is rarely discussed in the professional economics literature and has received little emphasis in recent economic policy making in OECD nations. This paper argues that economic...

This article establishes a relationship between the Consensus of Washington and gender inequality. It considers several important points: the reforms and the social impact; development and gender; for who is the structural process; gender budgets and the millennium objectives; and the employment...

The abrupt est of rapid economic growth in Malaysia has created a new mood of insecurity. However, "economic insecurity" is rarely discussed in the professional economics literature and has received little emphasis in recent economic policy making in OECD nations. This paper argues that economic...

The volatility that has hit many middle-income countries (MICs) after liberalizimg their financial markets has prompted critics to call for new policies to stabilize these boom-bust cycles. But, as Aaron Tornell and Frank Westermann point out in this book, over the last two decades most of the...

Social values/belief systems can be viewed as a stock of non-productive ideas that are collectively shared in a non-rivalrous way and evolve through experience/participation at the aggregate social level. While they are separate from the stock of scientific ideas that are essential to...

This paper aims to identify the effect of political exclusion on social capital in Colombia, suggesting social capital as an important channel through which political inequality has been central for Colombian economic development. I use the Colombian National Front agreement during 1958-1974 to...

Lending to the poor is expensive due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe lenders overcome this by harnessing social connections. Using data from FINCA-Peru, I exploit a quasi-random group formation process to find evidence of peers successfully...