A puzzle in the recently stagnated economy of Jamaica is that high rates of unemployment have persisted even when real wages have been increasing. This paper examines aspects of the labor supply in an effort to understand why high rates of unemployment have existed with increasing real wages....

Roughly a little under half of the world's population is mired in poverty, most in the developing world--about 3 billion people constitute the global base of the economic pyramid. Building on earlier work by Banerjee and Duflo (2007), this paper uses survey data from three countries in order to...

In the 1830s the British and American economies were hit by a series of shared macroeconomic shocks. This paper investigates the role of markets for Americas State bonds in Britain and the U.S. during and between the crises in 1837, 1839, and 1842. There is strong evidence that the crises in...

This paper studies the impact of growth fluctuation on human development indicators using country level panel data between 1980 and 2009. The evidence from mean comparison and regression analysis suggests that, globally and on average, periods of decelerating economic growth are correlated with...

In the 1830s the British and American economies were hit by a series of shared macroeconomic shocks. This paper investigates the role of markets for Americas State bonds in Britain and the U.S. during and between the crises in 1837, 1839, and 1842. There is strong evidence that the crises in...

This paper reviews conflict as one of potential factors that could be incorporated in the identification of least developed countries (LDCs). It is not clear whether conflict can be considered as a structurally predetermined handicap as those identified in LDC criteria. More importantly, even if...

Roughly a little under half of the world's population is mired in poverty, most in the developing world--about 3 billion people constitute the global base of the economic pyramid. Building on earlier work by Banerjee and Duflo (2007), this paper uses survey data from three countries in order to...