Episodes of economic growth that lead to reductions in poverty and inequality are relatively rare in developing countries. In this paper, we examine the institutional foundations of such growth episodes.We argue that the institutional factors that lead to accelerations in economic growth will be...

In contrast to previous literature, which looks at the effect of democracy on long-run growth or short-run volatility of growth, we examine the effect of political institutions on medium-term growth episodes. These are episodes of accelerations and decelerations that characterise the growth...

The conventional view of structural transformation is informed by three stylized facts of economic development: (i) all economies exhibit declining employment in agriculture, (ii) all economies exhibit a hump-shaped share of employment in industry, and (iii) all economies exhibit an increasing...

This paper contributes to the debate on the Sustainable Development Goals progress by evaluating the MDGs' achievements in South Asia and the policy and institutional challenges deriving from such experience. Using cross-country regressions and aggregate indicators of poverty, health, education...

The World Bank's Doing Business reports have evoked an intense policy debate about whether countries should simplify regulatory rules, in order to stimulate investment and growth, or make them more stringent, in order to achieve public policy objectives. Both sides of this debate however, assume...

In this paper we revisit the debate on the role of industrialisation in employment generation and poverty reduction in developing countries through an interpretative survey of the literature, supplemented with relevant stylized facts. After more than four decades of development experience and...

There is increasing realisation that state capacity is a fundamental ingredient for effective governance, and is a crucial element of long-run economic development. This paper offers an overview of the strengths and limitations in current empirical research on the measurement of state capacity....

Differences in the quality of institutions may explain differences in per capita income. Yet, we know relatively little on how institutions evolve. This paper contributes to such knowledge by testing for convergence in legal, bureaucratic and administrative institutional quality. Using...