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
The anarchy of numbers : aid, development, and cross-country empirics
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the importance of potentially arbitrary specification choices while minimizing the arbitrariness in testing choices and find that most of the results appear fragile, especially to sample expansion.
Journal ArticleDOI
Comparative Politics and Public Finance
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a model with micropolitical foundations to compare different political regimes, showing that the institutions of a presidential-congressional regime produce fewer incentives for legislative cohesion but more separation of powers.
Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present evidence about the impact that tertiary education can have on economic growth and poverty reduction, with a focus on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Journal ArticleDOI
Corruption, economic growth, and income inequality in Africa
TL;DR: This article used panel data from African countries and a dynamic panel estimator to investigate the effects of corruption on economic growth and income distribution and found that corruption decreases economic growth directly and indirectly through decreased investment in physical capital.
Journal ArticleDOI
Are You Being Served? Political Accountability and Quality of Government
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the political accountability mechanisms that lie behind varying levels of public corruption and of effective governance taking place across nations and develop a principal-agent model in which good governance is a function of the extent to which citizens can hold political officials accountable for their actions.
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.