This paper analyzes the trajectory of informality as it has evolved since 1950. For doing so, the analytic frame elaborated by Arthur Lewis was applied. For Lewis, the informal employment results from the incapacity of an economy, with unlimited labour supply, to absorb all the working force at...

This paper explores the middle income trap (MIT) concept from the perspective of productivity growth. Through the examination of cross-country historical statistics as well as China¡¯s regional data, it sheds light on the debate about whether the Chinese economy can avoid the middle income...

China has departed from the East Asian development model by letting inequality rise to a high level, which is now contributing to China¡¯s current problems of macroeconomic imbalance, declining efficiency of capital, and rising social tensions. If inequality persists, China may get caught in...

The rise of China is no doubt the most important event in world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. The institutional theory of development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive political institutions cannot explain China’s rise. This article argues that only a radical...

In the context of rising government debt levels in advanced economies and the ongoing euro zone debt crisis, there has been a revival of academic and policy debate on the impact of growing government debt on economic growth. This data-rich study offers an econometric investigation of the...

Turkey’s business sector dynamism has underpinned broad-based and inclusive growth in the 2000s. However, the business sector is highly segmented, with a relatively small core of modern high-productivity corporations, and myriad small, less formal and low-productivity entities. This hampers...

Burundi, a small fragile economy, went through sporadic civil war since its independence in 1962 during which rampant insecurity had adverse impact on the country’s social and economic development. While Burundi is agriculturally rich, high rate of growth of rural population places...

This paper investigates the effects of trade openness on the level of investment and the rate of economic growth in Kenya using annual time series data. The aggregate trade openness and trade-policy induced openness are evaluated. Controlling for a number of factors, aggregate trade openness is...

This paper proposes a new method to measure ethnolinguistic diversity and offers new results linking such diversity with a range of political economy outcomes -- civil conflict, redistribution, economic growth and the provision of public goods. We use linguistic trees, describing the...

After a long period of economic divergence before 1914, the Portuguese economy recovered slightly until 1950, entering thereafter on a path of strong economic convergence. This paper focuses on Portuguese economic growth in the period 1950-1973 in order to show how institutional decisions...