The fundamental importance of economic institutions for economic growth through their impact on technological change has been argued, reconfirmed by recent empirical studies, but not examined theoretically. This paper tries to fill that gap. In the model proposed, economic growth is affected by...

After a long period of catch-up growth that began after the Second World War, France has now reached a technological frontier in many sectors of its economy. Why is it then that the French economy ranks so low in various rankings of the world's most innovative economies? Why is it so difficult...

Financial institutions affect R&D and growth through their roles as corporate control devices with respect to disciplining managers and selecting projects. For an institution which generates a soft-budget constraints problem, we show how it creates conditions for relatively low economic growth...

This paper looks at the link between the quality of economic institutions and innovation, and innovation and growth. We construct a measure of the innovation content of individual manufacturing industries and show that countries with stronger economic institutions specialize in more...

The fundamental importance of economic institutions for economic growth through their impact on technological change has long been argued by Schumpeter and others. Recent empirical studies have reconfirmed such arguments. However, our understanding of the impacts of economic institutions on R&D...

The key institution that determines sustained growth in R&D-based growth models is the strength of intellectual property rights, which are usually assumed to be exogenous. In this paper we endogenize the strength of the intellectual property rights and show how private incentives to protect...