This paper studies the role of education as a way of reducing private rent seeking activities and increasing output. In many underdeveloped economies, for most individuals, there is no private return to education. Nonetheless, according to this paper, governments are better off by investing in...

This paper analyses leadership and charisma within the framework of social choice. In societies that lack formal institutional authorities, the power of leaders to coerce is limited. Under such conditions, we find that social outcomes will depend not only on policy preferences but also on how a...

Using a normalized CES function with factor-augmenting technical progress, we estimate a supply-side system of the US economy from 1953 to 1998. Avoiding potential estimation biases that have occurred in earlier studies and putting a high emphasis on the consistency of the data set, required by...

In this paper we provide a first attempt to analyse catch up at the micro level, not possible in conventional macro-studies. The Indonesian pulp and paper industry has been selected as case-study because it experienced spectacular investment and growth, becoming one of the world’s largest...

The past century has witnessed major changes in the economic choices of American women. Over the long term, there has been a marked trend towards lower fertility and higher female labor force participation. However, change did not occur in a uniform fashion: during the post-war Baby Boom,...

This paper studies the effects of the diffusion of a General Purpose Technology (GPT), that spreads first within the developed country of its origin (North), and then to a developing country (South). We use a general equilibrium model of growth, where each final good is produced by one of two...

The paper focuses on tax competition and international migration in R&D sectors as agglomeration forces and trade restrictions are present. Core countries in economically integrating regions adapt tax rates to keep their industrial status quo. Unlike the often discussed “race to the bottom”...