This article develops linkages between business associations and economic growth viewed through the prism of new institutional economics. The literature on economic regulation, collective choice, and rent-seeking often portrays interest groups as redistributing wealth. In this article we present...

We examine the impact of natural disasters on economic growth by applying a synthetic control approach. In contrast to previous literature, we adopt a within-country perspective, which allows us to use richer and more comparable data and to better define the geographic area hit by the disaster....

We set up a theoretical framework to analyze the possible role of economic growth and technological progress in the erosion of social capital. Under certain parameters, the relationship between technological progress and social capital can take the shape of an inverted U curve. We show the...