Why do certain parts of the state in Africa work so effectively despite operating in difficult governance contexts? How do 'pockets of bureaucratic effectiveness' emerge and become sustained over time? And what does this tell us about the prospects for state-building and development in Africa?...

This paper focuses on the grassroots of nation-building in times of mass migration. We identify the key factors explaining the rise of societal leaders from the scattered, heterogeneous Jewish communities of Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and 1948. Our empirical strategy relies on a new...

What determines the rejection of exogenously imposed institutions? To address this question, we exploit the transplantation of institutions that occurred when southern Italy was annexed to Piedmont, during the Italian unification process of the 1860s. We assemble a novel dataset on episodes of...

The quasi-exogenous division of the French regions Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War allows us to provide evidence about group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. Using several measures of stated and revealed preferences spanning over half a century, we...

The quasi-exogenous division of the French regions Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War allows us to provide evidence about group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. We use several measures of stated and revealed preferences at the municipal-level in a...

The quasi-exogenous division of the French regions Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco- Prussian War allows us to provide evidence about group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. We use several measures of stated and revealed preferences at the municipal-level in a...

"The proximate cause for Greg's interest in prehistory involved his effort to design a course on comparative economic institutions at Simon Fraser University during the late 1990s. This course was aimed at second and third year students who had seen some basic economics but had no math...

Around 15,000 years ago, almost all humans lived in small mobile foraging bands. By about 5,000 years ago, the first city-states had appeared. This radical transformation in human society laid the foundations for the modern world. We use economic logic and archaeological evidence to explain six...

Donor-state partnerships in the Cambodian land sector -- Encountering the leopard skin land reform -- Reconfiguring local authority through land reform -- Youth to the frontier: mobilizing land reform volunteers to build the state -- Life in the leopard skin -- Communal land struggles in the...

"The Trillion Dollar War is the culmination of an Afghan's personal life story weaved into academic understanding and coupled with professional experience in the field of development. It is written for Afghans, Afghan policymakers, and those in the West and broader international community who...

We study how cultural distance affects the rejection of imposed institutions. To this purpose, we exploit the transplantation of Piedmontese institutions on Southern Italy which occurred during the Italian unification. We assemble a novel and unique dataset containing information on episodes of...

We study how cultural distance affects the rejection of imposed institutions. To do so, we exploit the transplantation of Piedmontese institutions on Southern Italy that occurred during the Italian unification. We assemble a novel and unique dataset containing municipal-level information on...

It is generally argued that, in the context of Imperial Germany, public primary education was used to form “loyal citizens” and to build a nation. In this paper we analyze to what extent central spending on primary education affected participation at general elections and votes for...

It is generally argued that, in the context of Imperial Germany, public primary education was used to form "loyal citizens" and to build a nation. In this paper we analyze to what extent central spending on primary education affected participation at general elections and votes for...

This study uses discontinuities in U.S. strategies employed during the Vietnam War to estimate their causal impacts. It identifies the effects of bombing by exploiting rounding thresholds in an algorithm used to target air strikes. Bombing increased the military and political activities of the...

This study uses discontinuities in U.S. strategies employed during the Vietnam War to estimate their causal impacts. It identifies the effects of bombing by exploiting rounding thresholds in an algorithm used to target air strikes. Bombing increased the military and political activities of the...

"This book discusses Ambedkar's engagements with the issues of social justice, economic development, and caste enclosures. It highlights his significant contributions in the field of trade, public finance and monetary economics, Indian agriculture, education, among others, and examines their...

We model a two-region country where value is created through bilateral production between masses and elites (bourgeois and landowners). Industrialization requires the elites to finance schools and the masses to attend them. Schooling raises productivity, particularly for matches between masses...

Foreign aid plays a crucial role in the process of building fragile states, so it is vital to understand its effects. Afghanistan provides a prime case study. Following the removal of the Taliban regime by the US-led military intervention in late 2001, it has received unprecedented amounts in...

Introduction -- Political changes and Basotho responses, 1950s to independence -- The colonial era and the rhetorical consensus on development -- Working for development : centralization, youth groups, and the physical infrastructure of independence, 1960/1968 -- The internationalization of...