There have been many tests of the convergence hypothesis yielding many different estimates of β (the speed of convergence). Narrative reviews of the convergence literature hint at possible reasons for the study-to-study variation in the value of β, but such reviews are selective and informal....

We investigate how urban concentration and urbanization affect economic growth in developing countries. Using semi-parametric estimation techniques on a cross-country panel of 39 countries for the years 1960-1990 we discover a U-shaped relationship for urban concentration. This suggests the...

Using comparable data sets for five African countries we estimate, and evaluate possible explanations for, the employer size wage effect across these. Our results indicate, just as has been generally found for other developing and developed nations, that apart from observable worker...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) argues for relaxing the standard definition of unemployment in developing countries where labour markets are not as efficient as those in the developed world. We examine whether such an extension of the standard definition is appropriate in the case of...

This paper investigates whether education is used as a signaling device for worker productivity in developing countries. To do such we employ a simple test of employer learning on Ghana manufacturing data. We find no evidence of educational signaling for individuals who were hired through direct...

While there have been some references in the literature to the potential role of the general decline in rainfall in sub-Saharan African nations on their poor growth performance relative to other developing countries, this avenue remains empirically unexplored. In this paper we use a new...

In monopsony models of the labour market either a minimum wage or an employment subsidy financed by a lump sum tax on profits can achieve the efficient level of employment and output. Incorporating working conditions into a monopsony model where higher wages raise firm labour supply, but less...

On April the 6th of 1998 the government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago introduced a National Minimum Wage for the first time. Using the Trinidad and Tobago labour force survey we show that potential costs, if there had been full compliance, could have been substantial. An examination of...