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...

This article reviews some of the recent literature on the relationship between the legal system and economic development. We also look at the historical, socio-cultural, and political factors that explain the differences in the characteristics of legal systems across countries and thus affect...

This chapter discusses whether the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries are prone to be cursed or blessed by their natural resources endowments. It thus reviews the literature on the resource curse theory. The existence of a resource curse is discussed and arguments against advocates...

The dynamism of investment law was channelled through international institutions to a greater extent in 2017 than ever before. For decades, investment law has been defined by its decentralization—by the absence of an institutional hub for multilateral deliberations—and by the difficulty of...

This article investigates the role of political institutions and culture in creating an efficient financial infrastructure for a country. It further delves into this relationship and addresses the question: do both types of institutions mentioned above affect financial development of a country,...

This paper revisits the findings of Acemoglu et al. (2001) which suggests that the European mortality rates had a significant effect on what kind of institutions the Europeans established in different colonies and those colonial institutions caused dispersions in economic development. I argue...