This paper analyses the impact of population composition on long run economic development, by studying European migration to Argentina during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1914). I use an instrumental variables (IV) approach that assigns immigrants to counties by interacting two sources of...

The empirical evidence suggests that the resource rich countries tend to have poor economic perfor- mance and higher rent seeking. In this paper, we develop a general equilibrium model explaining why natural resources turn out to be a curse in an economy divided into two classes: elite and...

After having explored the mental processes around creation of novelty (Part I) as part of human’s adaptive behaviour to environmental change, in this second article about the deep origins of innovation we focus on the transfer of novelty by cultural replication. Applying Dawkins’...

We review the literature on pathways through which social networks may influence social mobility in developing countries. We find that social networks support members in tangible ways-via access to opportunities for migration, credit, trading relationships, information on jobs, and new...

Governments perpetually align their policies to satisfy shifts in voters' relative demand for economic growth versus social equality. Following such shifts, increases (decreases) in government interventions lower (raise) both inequality and growth. This pattern is stronger in egalitarian...

Drawing on recent research on allometric scaling and energy consumption, the present paper develops a nutrition-based efficiency wage model from first principles. The biologically micro-founded model allows us to address empirical criticism of the original nutrition-based efficiency wage model....

Migration of the unskilled clearly benefits the origin country, mainly due to the flow of remittances but also if the departure of some raises the ability of others to migrate. This depends on whether trade is a complement or a substitute for migration. The impact of such flows on the...

Vulnerability to scarcity or to reduction of natural capital depends on defensive substitution possibilities that, in turn, are affected by the availability of other productive factors. However, in several developing countries asset distribution tends to be highly skewed. Taking into ac- count...

Drawing on recent research on allometric scaling and energy consumption, the present paper develops a nutrition-based efficiency wage model from first principles. The biologically micro-founded model allows us to address empirical criticism of the original nutrition-based efficiency wage model....

We take up a growth model with both skilled and unskilled labor, and a steady migration of some unskilled workers, who undertake apprenticing, to the skilled group of workers. Apprenticing involves a period of observing and thus labor output foregone. The time-out for observing represents a cost...