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
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
How Bad is Corruption? Cross-country Evidence of the Impact of Corruption on Economic Prosperity
TL;DR: In this paper, the causal impact of corruption on gross domestic product per capita across countries was investigated and it was found that corruption does exert a significant and negative impact on countries' productivity levels.
Structure and Strategy in Ethnic Conflict
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a synthesis based on an understanding of ethnicity as a powerful Gemeinschaft affiliation that can induce both calculative and passionate action, and argue that this view of the ethnic group is compatible with changing ethnic boundaries and other claims of social constructionists.
Journal ArticleDOI
Investment in primary, secondary, and higher education and the effects on economic growth
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the effects of primary, secondary, and higher education on per capita growth for flow measures of education: enrollment rates, public expenditures, and expenditures per student, and recommends raising enrollment rates and prioritizing public expenditures toward lower education stages.
OtherDOI
Corruption and Sustainable Development
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the relationship between corruption and sustainable development in a sample of 110 countries between 1996 and 2007 and found that cross-national measures of perceived and experienced corruption reduce growth in genuine wealth per capita.
Journal ArticleDOI
Does Africa grow slower than Asia, Latin America and the Middle East? Evidence from a new data-based classification method
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the question whether sub-Saharan African countries have lower average growth rates in real GDP per capita than countries in Asia, Latin and Middle America and the Middle East.
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.