Over the last two centuries, many countries experienced regime transitions toward democracy. We document this democratic transition over a long time horizon. We use historical time series of income, education and democracy levels from 1870 to 2000 to explore the economic factors associated with...

The paper examines the range of national experiences of communist rule in terms of the aspiration to ‘overtake and outstrip the advanced countries economically’. It reviews the causal beliefs of the rulers, the rise and fall of their economies (or, in the case of China, its continued rise),...

Policymakers in Latin America increasingly are turning to policies that have high economic rates of return and a favorable impact on income distribution. By providing financial services to small businesses and poor households -which normally lack such services- credit unions help secure growth...

This book presents the proceedings of a seminar on the need for administrative, judicial and legislative reform in Latin American and the Caribbean, held in San José, Costa Rica, February 4-6,1993. Issues addressed include judicial management, training, and administration.Abstract: Esta...

We show that current levels of democracy in Africa are linked to the nature of its independence movements. Using different measures of political regimes and historical data on anti-colonial movements, we find that countries that experienced rural insurgencies tend to have autocratic regimes,...

Policymakers in Latin America increasingly are turning to policies that have high economic rates of return and a favorable impact on income distribution. By providing financial services to small businesses and poor households -which normally lack such services- credit unions help secure growth...

This book presents the proceedings of a seminar on the need for administrative, judicial and legislative reform in Latin American and the Caribbean, held in San José, Costa Rica, February 4-6,1993. Issues addressed include judicial management, training, and administration.Abstract: Esta...