This paper develops a structural model of infrastructure and output growth that specifies the ways in which country characteristics and policies enter the infrastructure-GDP interactions and lead to heterogeneity of steady states and convergence rates across countries and over time. We show that...

The paper aims to examine the role of institutions relative to economic policy and geography in explaining the differential level of development across countries over time. To that end, it attempts to construct a Development Quality Index (DQI) and an Institutional Quality Index (IQI) using...

Digitalisation may be viewed as a sequence of supply and technology shocks affecting the economy through productivity and output, employment and labour markets, competition and market structure. This paper focuses on the effects of digitalisation on economic growth, and how those effects may...

This paper develops a structural model of infrastructure and output growth that specifies the ways in which country characteristics and policies enter the infrastructure-GDP interactions and lead to heterogeneity of steady states and convergence rates across countries and over time. We show that...

The contention that “inclusive” institutions are the deep determinants of economic growth remains unsatisfactory. This paper develops an alternative theoretical and empirical case that economic structures are the fundamental cause of economic performance. Economic structures determine the...

Does trade improve institutions and contribute to long run growth? I develop a theory of trade, in which trade liberalization provides incentive to change institutions in two ways. On the one hand, trade leads to specialization according to comparative advantage, expanding the industries that do...

Is tourism an opportunity for lagging countries in the elusive quest for growth (Easterly, 2002)? Recent empirical evidence suggests that the answer is a cautious yes. Aggregate cross-country data show that tourism specialization is likely to be associated with higher per capita GDP growth rates...

We examine the effect of natural resource exports on economic performance during the 1996-2011 period in the 15 independent countries that formerly comprised the Soviet Union. These countries were a largely homogeneous group with respect to social and institutional context; however, these...