Civil wars impose substantial costs on the domestic economy. We empirically measure the economic impact of such internal wars. The paper contributes to the existing literature both theoretically and methodologically. First, it explores the economic channels through which civil war affects...

We believe that India has a chance for a tremendous breakthrough in economic development during the current decade. India’s political system is more than ever in consensus about the basic direction of reforms. The current government enjoys a strong electoral mandate. A decade of opening of the...

This paper offers the first comprehensive analysis of legal change in the protection of shareholder and creditor rights in transition economies and its impact on the propensity of firms to raise external finance. Following La Porta et al. (1998), the paper constructs an expanded set of legal...

In the paper the trade-offs among endogenous transaction costs caused by two-sided moral hazard, exogenous monitoring cost, and economies of specialization are specified in a Grossman, Hart and Moore (GHM) model to absorb Maskin and Tirole’s recent critique and Holmstrom and Milgrom’s...

Using panel data the question whether Africa's growth performance can be accounted for is analyzed in the framework of the augmented Solow model. Our results indicate that this model can account for Africa's low growth performance, provided that we allow for unobserved country specific effects...

The paper sheds light on the importance of the international dimension for African economic growth. While existing evidence points to a positive impact of openness on growth, the appropriate dynamics of the implications are yet to be captured. The beneficial effects of exports are confirmed for...

This paper presents a data set that improves the measurement of educational attainment for a broad group of countries. We extend our previous estimates of educational attainment for the population over age 15 and over age 25 up to 1995 and provide projections for 2000. We discuss the estimation...

Malaria and poverty are intimately connected. Controlling for factors such as tropical location, colonial history, and geographical isolation, countries with intensive malaria had income levels in 1995 only 33% of countries without malaria, whether or not the countries were in Africa. <p>The high...</p>

Economic globalization impacts the environment and sustainable development in a wide variety of ways and through a multitude of channels. The purpose of this paper is (a) to identify the key links between globalization and environment; (b) to identify the major issues addressed in multilateral...