natural resources rents may reduce incentives to invest in fiscal capacity. However, political institutions that limit rulers … mainly through institutions that make the tax system accountable and transparent. Thus it is possible to develop both fiscal …

This paper develops the empirical and theoretical case that differences in economic institutions are the fundamental … cause of differences in economic development. We first document the empirical importance of institutions by focusing on two … “quasi-natural experiments” in history, the division of Korea into two parts with very different economic institutions and …