In this paper, the authors: (i) study wage-experience profiles and obtain measures of returns to potential work experience using data from about 24 million individuals in 1,084 household surveys and census samples across 145 countries; (ii) show that returns to work experience are strongly...

We develop a dynamic exchange environment to analyze the value created by contracting institutions. In the model, a contract is a pre-agreed specification of behavior, which may be subsequently enforced by a third party. We study the effect of economic fundamentals on the demand for such an...