Using data on a panel of 56 democratic countries in the period 1975-2004, we find evidence of a negative association between political stability and economic growth which is stronger and empirically more robust in countries with high bureaucratic costs. Motivated by these results, which contrast...

This paper studies the determinants of immigration policy in an economy with entrepreneurs and workers where a trade union has monopoly power over wages. The presence of the union leads a benevolent government to implement a high level of immigration and induces a welfare loss not only from an...

Using an endogenous growth model in which countries differ with respect to property rights protection, the paper analyzes the growth and welfare effects of removing capital controls, and studies the political support for a reform which improves the quality of property rights. When these are...

In this paper, we analyse the empirical relationship between social security expenditure and economic growth, using cross-country data for a sample of 61 countries and panel data for a sample of 20 industrialized countries. We find that, whenever a statistically significant association between...

This paper provides an explanation for the existence of child labor which relies on the imperfect enforcement of compulsory schooling laws. In the presence of complementarities in the production of human capital that justify legislative intervention, mandatory measures ensure that coordination...

We analyze under which conditions temporary migration of unskilled and skilled workers increases human capital accumulation in the host country. We also show that the negative welfare effect of lower unskilled wages may be counterbalanced by deeper human capital formation

This paper sheds light on the relationship between income inequality and redistributive policies and provides possible guidance in the specification of empirical tests of such a relationship. We model a two-period economy where capital markets are imperfect and agents vote over the level of...