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 Origins of Ethnolinguistic Diversity
TL;DR: The authors explored the determinants of ethnolinguistic diversity within as well as across countries, shedding light on its geographic origins, finding that geographic variability, captured by variation in regional land quality and elevation, is a fundamental determinant of contemporary linguistic diversity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Learning about democracy in Africa: Awareness, performance, and experience
Robert Mattes,Michael Bratton +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that Africans form attitudes to democracy based upon what they learn about what it is and does, and test this hypothesis against competing cultural, institutional, and structural theories to explain citizens' demand for democracy (legitimation) and their perceived supply of democracy (institutionalization).
Journal ArticleDOI
On the measurement of political instability and its impact on economic growth
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the multidimensionality of political instability using 25 political instability indicators in an exploratory factor analysis and found that political instability has four dimensions: politically motivated violence, mass civil protest, instability within the political regime and instability of the regime.
Journal ArticleDOI
Integrating Data on Ethnicity, Geography, and Conflict
Manuel Vogt,Nils-Christian Bormann,Seraina Rüegger,Lars-Erik Cederman,Philipp Hunziker,Luc Girardin +5 more
TL;DR: The family of ethnic power relations (EPR) data set as mentioned in this paper provides data on ethnic groups access to state power, their settlement patterns, links to rebel organizations, transborder ethnic kin relations, and intra-ethnic cleavages.
Book
Making finance work for Africa
Patrick Honohan,Thorsten Beck +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a coherent policy approach that addresses African priorities and can work in African conditions, which challenges the applicability of some conventional views on a range of issues from securities markets and banking regulation to the organization of micro finance institutions.
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.