Nunn (2008) found a negative relationship between past slave exports and economic performance within Africa. Here we investigate these findings and the suggested causal pathway in further detail. Extending the sample period back in time we reveal that the coefficient on slave exports did not...

The New Institutional Economics (NIE) has its early roots in Cliometrics. Cliometrics began with a focus on using neoclassical theory to develop and test hypotheses in economic history. But empirical consideration of economic and political development within and across countries is limited,...

The New Institutional Economics (NIE) has its early roots in Cliometrics. Cliometrics began with a focus on using neoclassical theory to develop and test hypotheses in economic history. But empirical consideration of economic and political development within and across countries is limited,...

Just how well is the Nigerian Economy performing? In the absence of a holistic report articulating the economic performance of Nigeria, no one could claim to know. There are only a lot of partial views on different aspects of the economy being expressed by different government officials. Little...

Poverty remains a pervasive problem all over the world, but the problem is worst in underdeveloped areas like Africa. While microfinance is supposed to address this problem through the promotion of viable businesses, it has not been very successful in helping survival microenterprises, i.e.,...

This paper focuses on the debt build-up that frontier low-income developing countries (LIDCs) have faced since 2012. First, it documents a 20-percentage point increase in the external and government debt-to-GDP ratios, a composition shift toward higher non-concessional debt, and a rise in...

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Belize grew faster than its regional peers. By the mid-2000s, however, economic growth had slowed down to the regional average. A vicious circle of low growth and increasing public debt has been clouding Belize's outlook. This paper applies a growth diagnostic...

The scale and complexity of global forced displacement has created enormous humanitarian, social, economic and political challenges across the globe. The Australian Government responded by putting in place a range of policies designed to deter people from seeking asylum in Australia through...

The success of the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Development Agenda will depend upon reforms to the agency's governance. At the 2007 WIPO General Assemblies, several of the recommendations on the Development Agenda adopted by member states specifically alluded to the need for...

This study while validating the increasing role for financial intermediaries in economic development has attempted to highlight the importance of reduction of transaction costs for financial deepening and consequent economic growth. It is elucidated that higher transaction costs of borrowing for...