Although Jordan reached middle-income status more than three decades ago, the country has not made the additional leap, like most developing countries in the Middle East, to become a high-income economy. In this paper, we argue that institutions, namely formal rules (constitution, judiciary,...

This paper investigates the institutional causes of China's Great Famine. It presents two empirical findings: 1) in 1959, when the famine began, food production was almost three times more than population subsistence needs; and 2) regions with higher per capita food production that year suffered...

Rizal’s economic ideas are among the least studied aspects of his work. A careful reading of his writing, however, particularly his 1890 essay “On the indolence of the Filipinos,” suggests that Rizal’s economic views were in general agreement with those of Enlightenment thinkers...

After a review of the institutional economics literature, time- series evidence is presented to show that recent Philippine economic growth has been hindered by institutional weaknesses. In particular, variables representing political instability and corruption are seen to have significantly...

Conventional explanations of Taiwan and China’s economic success point to the shift from an import-substituting industrialization (ISI) strategy to an export-oriented industrialization (EOI) strategy. This paper argues that the development strategies in Taiwan and China have always been a...

The Vietnam War occurred when Vietnam was divided into two states with contrasting institutions. North Vietnam was characterized by a command economy under a stable political regime, whereas South Vietnam experienced a market economy and prolonged political instability. This paper uses this...

We test the reproducibility and replicability of Dincecco et al. (2022), which reports a positive relationship between pre-colonial interstate warfare and long-run development patterns across India. Overall, we confirm that all of the study's estimates are computationally reproducible by using...

We examine whether frontier rule, which disallows frontier residents from recourse to formal institutions of conflict management and disproportionately empowers tribal elites, provides a more fragile basis for maintaining social order in the face of shocks. Combining a historical border that...

We examine whether frontier rule, which disallows frontier residents from a recourse to formal institutions of conflict management and disproportionately empowers tribal elites, provides a more fragile basis for maintaining social order in the face of shocks. Combining a historical border...

This paper surveys China's legal system in the economic reform era. We analyze the role of law in the economy, assessing whether China's formal legal system contributed to those expectations of stable and predictable rights of property and contract that are prerequisites for growth. The paper...