This research explores the economic causes and consequences of language structures. It advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that variations in pre-industrial geographical characteristics that were conducive to higher return to agricultural investment, larger gender gap in...

This paper examines the role that institutions have played in the performance of African economies over the past decades. It discusses the institutional changes needed to enable African countries to reach inclusive development in the near future. The paper starts from the premise that growth and...

What obstacles prevent the most productive technologies from spreading to less developed economies from the world's technological frontier? In this paper, we seek to shed light on this question by quantifying the geographic and human barriers to the transmission of technologies. We argue that...

We use the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to show that personal relationships which individuals maintain for non-economic reasons can be an important determinant of regional economic growth. We show that West German households who have social ties to East Germany in 1989 experience a persistent...

Based on archival and survey data we show that the maturity of U.S. business loans has been continuously increasing since the mid-1930s when banks invented the term loan. Concurrently, bank innovation first involved the invention of credit analysis and covenant design. Later, bank innovation...

The recent longstanding Global Crisis which seems to have no end has created a divisive debate on the utility of Academic research and in particular on the business of studying Economics and proffering solutions for alleviating world problems. The study , kickstarts an exercise in Critical...

During the last 50 years with unprecedented population growth and urbanization, economic development, particularly in developing countries failed to generate adequate employment and income opportunities in the modern sector, compelling the surplus labour force to generate its own means of...

In this paper, we test the Rodrik et al (2004) framework to explain differences in development levels across countries by using a broader set of definitions for institutions, geography and economic variables. We use a multi-faceted database to measure institutions in an attempt to go beyond the...

Cet article propose une revue de la littérature consacrée à la décentralisation dans les pays en voie de développement. Reprenant la distinction des fonctions de l’État établie par Musgrave (allocation redistribution et stabilisation) ainsi que deux principes généraux - le principe de...

Economic development theory has recognized that access to finance enables economic agents of production to exploit growth opportunities. The governments of less developed countries since world war two have been striving hard to enacting suitable policies to enable rural households in accessing...