Using a unique dataset collected in 59 rural Gambian villages, we study how ethnic heterogeneity is related to the structure of four economic exchange networks: land, labor, inputs and credit. We find that different measures of village-level ethnic fragmentation are mostly uncorrelated with...

AbstractThe following sections are included:IntroductionThe Economics 101 ModelThe Credit Rationing ModelSocial PlannerDecentralized EquilibriumConclusionsReferencesAppendix A

We revisit the simultaneous equations model of rebellion, mobilization, grievances and repression proposed by Gurr and Moore (1997). \ Our main contribution is to clarify and improve on the underlying identification strategy by resorting to the well-known colonization instruments recently...

Deforestation is a phenomenon that has largely been concentrated in the developing world. We construct a theoretical model of deforestation that focuses on the factors affecting the incentives to transform forested land into agricultural land. We show that: (i) lower discount rates and stronger...

This paper examines whether there is a threshold above which financial development no longer has a positive effect on economic growth. We use different empirical approaches to show that there can indeed be ""too much"" finance. In particular, our results suggest that finance starts having a...