While the importance of institutions for explaining cross-country income differences is widely recognized, comparatively little is known about the origins of economic institutions. One strand of the literature emphasizes cultural differences while another points at exogenous environmental...

What are informal political institutions? How different colonial institutions differently impact long-term economic and political development in former European colonies? What is the role of informal political institutions in the political stability of democratic and authoritarian regimes in...

We revisit the idea that colonized countries that were more (less) economically advanced in 1500 became poorer (richer, respectively) by the late 20th century. Using data on place of origin of today's country populations and the urbanization and population density measures used by Acemoglu et...