This study examines the critical interplay between institutional and cultural backgrounds and their collective impact on economic development, suggesting that their synchronized evolution-timing, pace, and direction-boosts economic development, while misalignment hinders it. It seeks to...

I argue that whether or not a state is predatory hinges on the relationship between development and the distribution of political power in society. Development is typically inconsistent with the preservation of the political status quo and this gives those who initially hold political power an...