a major determinant of the comparatively slow development of resource- or land-abundant regions like South America and …, development is faster in a democratic system. We also endogenize the trade regime and demonstrate that, in political equilibrium …

perspective. We emphasize the importance of the different social organizations that diffused in these two parts of the world in … the centuries that preceded the industrial revolution: kin-based organizations in China, vs corporations in Europe. We … explain their cultural origins, and discuss how these different organizations shaped the evolution of legal systems, political …

positions. In a probabilistic voting model, we show that a lack of financial institutions can lead to more corruption as more … voters become part of the corrupt system. Well-functioning financial institutions, in turn, can increase the political …

argue that existing studies on the impact of natural disasters on economic development have several important limitations … in a small grid and gets weaker the larger the unit of observation. National institutions and economic conditions are …

creates continuous and dichotomous indices. We use the SVM indices to investigate the effect of democratic institutions on … economic development, and find that democracies grow faster than autocracies. Furthermore, we illustrate how the estimation …