In this paper we examine the empirical relevance of three prominent endogenous protection models. Is protection for sale, or do altruistic policy makers worry about political support? We find strong evidence that protection is indeed "for sale." The important new result is, however, that not...

To examine how human capital accumulation influences both economic growth and income inequality, we carefully endogenize the demand and supply of skills. We explicitly introduce the costs and externalities in education, and examine how both relate to learning-by-doing and R&D intensity. In...

In this paper we examine the effect of tax policy on the relationship between inequality and growth in a two-sector non-scale model. With non-scale models, the longrun equilibrium growth rate is determined by technological parameters and it is independent of macroeconomic policy instruments....

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The introduction of the euro generated substantial interest in measuring the impact of currency unions (CUs) on trade flows. Rose’s (2000) initial estimates suggested a tripling of trade and created a literature in search of “more reasonable” CU effects. A recent meta-analysis of this...

The hallmark of the recent development and growth literature is a quest to identify institutions that explain a significant portion of the observed differences in living standards across countries. Empirical work in the area focuses almost exclusively on either the global sample or on developing...

In recent empirical work, institutions have been shown to explain a significant share of the differences in cross-country accumulation, productivity, and output levels. The key institution that determines sustained development in R&D based growth models is the strength of intellectual property...