This paper provides the text of the Gunnar Myrdal Lecture presented at the U.N. Palais des Nations in 2003. The lecture suggests that the gaps in income per capita between richer and poorer countries largely reflect the quality of their institutions. Institutions, by reducing uncertainty, are...

From 1982 to 2005 the United States experienced strong economic growth interrupted by two brief recessions; job growth, however, was not evenly distributed throughout the country. By employing dynamic rather than static shift-share decomposition, and by displaying shift-share analysis through...