Data on the growth performances of countries with similar comparative (dis)advantage and political institutions reveal a striking variation across world regions. While some former autocracies such as the East Asian growth miracles have done remarkably well, others such as the Latin American...

This paper presents a new market failure in the decision on educational type in higher education. Individuals choose types of education with different degrees of specialization. Labor market transformation makes some individuals opt for a non-specialized education type that broadens the future...

A lot of attention has been directed towards recent financial crises around the world. It seems that financial markets are prone to herding, panics, contagion and boom-bust cycles. Empirical studies have found that short-term flows increase financial fragility and also increase the probability...

This paper examines the importance of the ability of high-educated individuals on the growth rate. I consider two sources of heterogeneity among individuals: ability and consumption value of education. The latter is assumed to depend on family background and will thus generate different ability...

Economists and politicians in Sweden stated in the early 1990s that devaluations of the country's currency had lessened the external pressure on manufacturing and led to a delay in structural change and rationalizations. The theory of transformation pressure generalizes the idea that...

Empirical foundations for the view that high central government deficits and inflation impair growth are examined using annual data for 115 countries over the period 1960-1995. Taking into account country heterogeneity and time-specific symmetric shocks, we estimate intra-country effects of past...

The theory of transformation pressure offers a uniquely Swedish perspective on the "productivity slowdown" of the 1970s and 1980s. One example of this theory can be found in an influential argument from the early 1990s which states that devaluations of the Swedish currency lessened the external...