Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- I History -- 1 The Impact of Administrative Power on Political and Economic Developments: Toward a Political Economy of Implementation -- 2 The Institutional Origins of the Industrial Revolution -- 3 Institutions and the Resource Curse in...

We study the competition between two political parties for seats in a legislature. The parties have fixed positions on some issues, but vary their positions on others in order to attract votes and campaign contributions. In this context, we examine whether special interest groups are governed by...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: Instruments of Influence -- 1. Common Agency and Coordination: General Theory and Application to Government Policy Making -- 2. Electoral Competition and Special Interest Politics -- 3. Competing for Endorsements -- Part II: Trade Policy -- 4....

The authors construct a dynamic, two country model of trade and growth in which endogenous technological progress results from the profit-maximizing behavior of entrepreneurs. They study the role that the external trading environment and that trade and industrial policies play in the...

Suppose that an opportunity arises for two countries to negotiate a free-trade agreement. Will a free-trade agreement between these countries be politically viable and, if so, what form will it take? The authors address these questions using a political-economy framework that emphasizes the...

The authors construct a model of the product cycle featuring endogenous innovation and technology transfer. Competitive entrepreneurs in the industrialized North introduce new products whenever the expected present value of oligopoly profits exceeds the cost of product development. In the...

The authors develop a model of repeated product improvements in a continuum of sectors. Each product follows a stochastic progression up a quality ladder. Progress is not uniform across sectors, so an equilibrium distribution of quality evolves over time. But the rate of aggregate growth is...