We use new data on the timing of the transition to agriculture, developed by Putterman and Trainor (2006), to test the theory of Diamond (1997) and Olsson and Hibbs (2005) that an earlier transition is reflected in higher incomes today. Our results confirm the theory, even after controlling for...

We decisively reject the hypothesis that geographical factors influence long-run only indirectly, through the quality of institutions. The direct influence of geography on per capita incomes is robust to the inclusion of a sub-Saharan Africa dummy and other tests. We obtain our results by...

Official and four alternative regime classification schemes based on observed exchange rate behaviour are used to examine the relationship with inflation and growth in developing countries. For an identical sample of observations from 73 countries for 1984-2001, only the scheme based on parallel...

We expand Hanushek and Kimko’s (2000) analysis of the relationship between schooling quality, as measured by scores in international tests, and growth. We take account of another fifteen years of growth and approximately twice as many test score results. We treat the data first as a panel,...

We investigate the determinants of onset, duration and incidence of civil wars, and their sensitivity to different coding rules. Whatever the coding rule used, incidence of civil war is largely determined by poverty, country size, mountainous terrain and ethnic diversity. Poverty reduces the...

Using data from 1980 to 2004, we show that greater fiscal policy volatility acts as a transmission mechanism for the ‘resource curse’. Resource exports dominate political and institutional variables as determinants of fiscal policy volatility, with fiscal policy volatility being a...

We compare the relationship between net capital inflows, real exchange rate movements and growth for twenty emerging markets and thirteen developed countries over the period 1985-2004. In developed countries low real exchange rates are associated with faster growth, but in emerging markets...

For developing countries, it is shown that different exchange rate classification schemes paint a very inconsistent picture. Disagreements between alternative schemes are as great as with the official scheme. Only the official scheme shows a trend towards floating.