Journal ArticleDOI
Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions
William Easterly,Ross Levine +1 more
TLDR
This article showed that ethnic diversity helps explain cross-country differences in public policies and other economic indicators in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that high ethnic fragmentation explains a significant part of most of these characteristics.Abstract:
Explaining cross-country differences in growth rates requires not only an understanding of the link between growth and public policies, but also an understanding of why countries choose different public policies. This paper shows that ethnic diversity helps explain cross-country differences in public policies and other economic indicators. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth is associated with low schooling, political instability, underdeveloped financial systems, distorted foreign exchange markets, high government deficits, and insufficient infrastructure. Africa's high ethnic fragmentation explains a significant part of most of these characteristics.read more
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Posted Content
Ethnic Polarization and the Duration of Civil Wars
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the relationship between ethnic polarization and the duration of civil wars and found that more polarization implies longer civil wars. But they did not consider the effect of the relative size of the contenders in a war.
Journal ArticleDOI
Culture and place-based development: a socio-economic analysis
Robert Huggins,Piers Thompson +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a socio-economic analysis of cultural factors in economic change and development is presented, where cultural factors are often absent from analyses of economic change, divorcing the nature of social places from the economic spaces within which they are situated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Foreign Capital, Human Capital, and Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis for Developing Countries
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use stochastic frontier analysis to study which of the three channels of technology diffusion, foreign direct investment (FDI), imports of machinery and equipment, or imports of research and development (R&D) expenditures, affect the total factor productivity of developing countries.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Role of Capital Accumulation, Adjustment and Structural Change for Economic Take-Off: Empirical Evidence from African Growth Episodes
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed extended periods of growth in Africa based on panel estimations from 27 African countries during 1960-96 and concluded that sustainable growth needs to be based on a balanced mix of capital accumulation, macroeconomic adjustment and structural change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Context Matters: Institutions and Entrepreneurship
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the relevant literature from institutional economics and entrepreneurial studies, focusing on the important link between the two and discuss the implications for future research on the topic.
References
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The mechanics of economic development
Abstract: This paper considers the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development. Three models are considered and compared to evidence: a model emphasizing physical capital accumulation and technological change, a model emphasizing human capital accumulation through schooling, and a model emphasizing specialized human capital accumulation through learning-by-doing.
Journal ArticleDOI
On the mechanics of economic development
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development, and compare three models and compared to evidence.
Posted Content
Law and Finance
Rafael La Porta,Rafael La Porta,Florencio Lopez de Silanes,Florencio Lopez de Silanes,Andrei Shleifer,Andrei Shleifer,Robert W. Vishny,Robert W. Vishny +7 more
TL;DR: This paper examined legal rules covering protection of corporate shareholders and creditors, the origin of these rules, and the quality of their enforcement in 49 countries and found that common law countries generally have the best, and French civil law countries the worst, legal protections of investors.
ReportDOI
Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries
TL;DR: For 98 countries in the period 1960-1985, the growth rate of real per capita GDP is positively related to initial human capital (proxied by 1960 school-enrollment rates) and negatively related to the initial (1960) level as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Finance and Growth: Schumpeter Might Be Right
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined a cross-section of about 80 countries for the period 1960-89 and found that various measures of financial development are strongly associated with both current and later rates of economic growth.