There have been repeated claims that informal institutions play an important or even crucial role in economic development. Yet, measuring informal institutions entails serious challenges. This paper identifies the difficulties in measuring informal institutions, critically discusses some...

This paper does three things. First, based on a limited number of theoretically established dimensions, it proposes a new de facto indicator for the rule of law. It is the first such indicator to take the quality of legal norms explicitly into account. Second, using this indicator we shed new...

China scholars have explored shirking by local officials and “effective implementation,” but fewer have examined polices that are implemented with great enthusiasm. The Microfinance for Women Program fits in this last category. Especially in Sichuan, targets for lending were set by the...

The effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on indigenous entrepreneurship in emerging markets is shaped in association with the quality of national governance infrastructure. The essential of such a convoluted interplay is concluded: governance quality alters the FDI-based spillovers of...

In this paper the impact of legislation on the GDP growth rate is investigated, both before and after the great economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008. The analysis has been performed using data from the twenty Italian regions from 1995 to 2016. Using several econometric models, the most...

This paper presents new evidence on how demography affects democratic attitudes in Western democracies. Using individual survey responses, the empirical analysis disentangles age from cohort patterns and other contemporaneous economic and political influences that shape democratic attitudes. The...

This paper presents new evidence on how demography affects attitudes toward democracy and policy preferences. The empirical analysis disentangles age effects from cohort effects and separates their role from economic and political factors that shape political preferences in a given period, using...

We study the role of proximity to historical ethnic borders in determining individual land ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an instrumental variable strategy, we document that individuals have a lower likelihood of owning land near historical ethnic borders. In particular, the...

We explore the effect of historical ethnic borders on contemporary conflict in Africa. We document that both the intensive and extensive margins of contemporary conflict are higher close to historical ethnic borders. Exploiting variations across artificial regions within an ethnicity's...

We study the role of proximity to historical ethnic borders in determining individual land ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an instrumental variable strategy, we document that individuals have a lower likelihood of owning land near historical ethnic borders. In particular, the...