We revisit the debate over whether political institutions cause economic growth, or whether, alternatively, growth and human capital accumulation lead to institutional improvement. We find that most indicators of institutional quality used to establish the proposition that institutions cause...

Financial institutions affect R&D and growth through their roles as corporate control devices with respect to disciplining managers and selecting projects. For an institution which generates a soft-budget constraints problem, we show how it creates conditions for relatively low economic growth...

The fundamental importance of economic institutions for economic growth through their impact on technological change has long been argued by Schumpeter and others. Recent empirical studies have reconfirmed such arguments. However, our understanding of the impacts of economic institutions on R&D...

This Article identifies and examines two alternative institutional structures for hierarchical institutions — “bounded” vs. “unbounded” institutional structures. In a bounded structure, a principal decides on a bounded numerical allocation and then an agent allocates to subjects while...

Chang (2011) raises doubts about the effects of institutions on economic development and questions the positive effects of entirely free markets based on secure private property rights. We respond by stressing that institutions structure the incentives underlying individual action, secure...

Comparative research on political institutions has begun to turn from issues of formal institutional design to issues of institutional strength. Rather than assuming a tight fit between formal rules and political behavior, these studies examine how variation in the stability and/or enforcement...

Comparative research on political institutions has begun to turn from issues of formal institutional design to issues of institutional strength. Rather than assuming a tight fit between formal rules and political behavior, these studies examine how variation in the stability and/or enforcement...