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...

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...

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...

We model the two way interaction between education, corruption and the level of output. Corruption reduces income levels and hence educational attainment. Education in turn affects the incentives for corruption: more education increases output and thus the rents from corruption, but it also...

Trade theories covering Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) are as diverse as the literature in search of their empirical support. To account for the model uncertainty that surrounds the validity of the competing PTA theories, we introduce Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to the PTA literature....

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...

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...

Documenting the long term impact of institutions on economic performance has generated tremendous interest in the development literature. Contemporary or intermediate term effects of institutions over time are difficult to establish, however, since institutions seldom change significantly in the...