We present a simple model that illustrates how democracy may improve the quality of economic institutions. The model further suggests that institutional quality varies more across autocracies than across democracy and that the positive effect of democracy on institutional quality is increasing...

Increased productivity is one of the main drivers of economic growth. Considering the increasing importance of the service sector in many economies studies of productivity in service firms are essential, but still rare. Questions concerning the underlying reasons for productivity differences in...

Using Jones (2014) generalized human capital accounting, we extend the urban accounting model of Desmet and Rossi-Hansberg (2013) to account for the geographic distribution of skills across US metropolitan areas. The methodology allows the productivity of high-skill workers to depend on location...

Are there differentials in children's competence levels by their self-regulation and do they imply differences in competence development? We investigate the relationship between preschoolers' self-regulation and their mathematical competence and its development using data from the German...