Introduction: the Texas paradox -- And then there was light: from chaos to order in the kerosene era (1859-1911) -- No Rockefeller, no peace: boom-bust returns (1912-1933) -- Why are oil prices prone to boom bust cycles? -- The Texas era of price stability: US supply controls and international...

As developing countries rapidly urbanize, the number of people living in 'slums'-neighbourhoods lacking property rights and basic services-continues to increase. Whether slum residents will ultimately share in the benefits of the cities they help build or will remain trapped in poverty is not...

The highly prized ability to make financial plans with some certainty about the future comes from the core fields of economics. In recent years the availability of more data, analytical tools of greater precision, and ex post studies of business decisions have increased demand for information...

We present cross-country evidence that a country's macroeconomic volatility, measured either by the standard deviation of output growth or the occurrence of trend-growth breaks, is significantly affected by the country's historical variables. In particular, countries with longer histories of...