The imperative of the state, irrespective of its organization, is to provide law and order, contract enforcement, and property rights. The government provides the foundation for markets to function and for society to prosper. A common thread in any government is that, for a given society, the...

In Indonesia, fiscal decentralisation has been implemented for two decades, and it is expected that the regions will have a sufficient level of independence to increase economic growth and welfare. This study investigates the influence of fiscal decentralisation and human development on regional...

It is well known that there is a strong positive correlation between per capita incomes and the quality of governance across countries. Kaufmann and Kraay propose an empirical strategy that allows separation of this correlation into (1) a strong positive causal effect running from better...

Critics of international student comparisons argue that results may be influenced by differences in the extent to which countries adequately sample their entire student populations. In this research note, we show that larger exclusion and non-response rates are related to better country average...

In a world of roving bandits a sub-optimal provision of collective gods exists, most notably security and economic growth. This creates an opportunity for roving bandits to act as political entrepreneurs by becoming stationary bandits and as strong rulers monopolize vilence and provide...

This essay reviews the relationship between natural-resource abundance and economic growth around the world, and presents some new results. The principal reasons why resource-based production can inhibit economic growth over long periods are traced to the Dutch disease, neglect of education,...

Foreign aid’s effectiveness in promoting economic growth remains mired in controversy.We examine the impact of the volatility of aid on economic growth, controlling for the level of aid. A four-year panel analysis is conducted encompassing 155 countries over the period 1966-2001. We find that...

The article provides a broad-based overview on competing development strategies and the economic performance of developing countries, mainly since the year 2000. Four traditional mainstream development strategies are discussed (Washington Consensus, neo-liberalism, "good governance" and MDGs)...

In this letter I summarise the main results and contributions from my Ph.D. thesis on concentration of resources and economic development. The empirical analysis performed in the thesis, and summarised here, focuses on two mayor world trends in modern economic development, namely increasing...

Inclusive growth should ensure "broad-based" economic growth which characterizes the pattern of growth. Beyond simple association identification implied by the Kuznets curve and cross-country panel regression analyses, this study attempts to shed light on the dynamic causality relationship and...