The sources of economic growth and development have been puzzling economists from the modern dawn of the profession. While the Solow-Swan neo-classical model dominated research on growth in the 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s saw the emergence of growth theories that disputed, largely on theoretical...

This paper examines Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and knowledge flows, using international patent data. The result is a measure of technology that isolates sources of innovation and their contributions to domestic TFP. Within-industry innovation enhances domestic productivity, and domestic...

We study how the import of older and more polluting technologies alters the relationship between output and environmental quality in developing countries within a vintage capital framework. Our results show that old technologies prolong the period until which pollution may eventually decrease...

This paper studies the role of communication and reputation in market interactions using data from online procurement auctions. Not only positive reputation ratings but also engaging in communication increases a bidder's probability of winning the auction. Messages are primarily used to reduce...

This paper studies peer effects on student achievement among first graders randomly assigned to classrooms in Tennessee's Project STAR. The analysis uses previously unexploited pre-assignment achievement measures available for 60 percent of students. Data are not missing at random, making...

In many countries that have decentralized, improving the accountability of local officials is increasingly emphasized to make them more responsive to their constituents' needs. This paper provides evidence that the public announcement of performance ratings can induce local governments to become...

Many developing countries exhibit imbalanced spatial development, but corrective policies are hampered by lack of adequate sub-regional development data. Building on the insights of the factor price equalization theorem and by applying measures of spatial autocorrelation on land values, patterns...