This chapter surveys the historical evidence on the role of institutions in economic growth and points out weaknesses in a number of stylized facts widely accepted in the growth literature. It shows that private-order institutions have not historically substituted for public-order ones in...

Bad institutions are regularly blamed for poor economic performance, and Latin America is often used as the prime example of the potentially damaging effects of bad institutions on economic development. However, very little time-series analysis has been done to substantiate this claim, and in...

The fundamental importance of economic institutions for economic growth through their impact on technological change has long been argued by Schumpeter and others. Recent empirical studies have reconfirmed such arguments. However, our understanding of the impacts of economic institutions on R&D...

This paper presents the issue of economic convergence, reviewing some of the theories used in analyzing this process, theories of economic growth, types of economic convergence: nominal, real and institutional convergence, the effects of the recent crisis on economic convergence. The programme...

This study examines the critical interplay between institutional and cultural backgrounds and their collective impact on economic development, suggesting that their synchronized evolution-timing, pace, and direction-boosts economic development, while misalignment hinders it. It seeks to...