Human development, in combination with technology, yields economic growth which, in turn, is necessary to generate further advances in human development. This paper focuses on the first channel above and finds the relationship significant. Secondly, the paper tries to investigate what affects...

We examine the impact of geo-referenced World Bank development programs on subnational development using equally sized grid cells with a spatial resolution of 0.5 decimal degrees latitude x longitude as the unit of investigation. The proposed grid cell approach solves a number of endogeneity...

Does aid contribute to human development other than by increasing growth? In doing so, is aid more or less effective in poorer countries (those with low levels of aggregate welfare)? This paper addresses these issues, assessing if there is cross-country aggregate evidence for an effect of aid on...

Contemporary models of growth and development are founded on a category error: they ignore nature as a form of productive capital. Using as backdrop two recent books on the Indian economy that are representative of the prevailing orthodoxy, I review and in part extend an emerging literature that...

We modify the concept of the middle-income trap (MIT) against the background of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the (future) challenges of automation (creating the concept of the "MIT 2.0") and discuss the implications for developing Asia. In particular, we analyze the impacts of...

We investigate the heterogeneity of the impact of World Bank foreign aid projects on local economic development across countries, sectors and time. Using a grid-cell dataset of geo-referenced aid data, satellite night-time light imagery, and climatic and socio-economic controls, we employ a...

This essay focuses on two questions: How do the current economic systems and institutions of Islamic nations differ from those of other nations at roughly the same stage of economic development? And what is the impact of Islam on the economic and social performance of these nations? Using a...

Thomas Friedman has argued in The World is Flat that those who deny rapid globalization will not survive in the global economy. First, we critically discuss Friedman's views and highlight the new globalization driven by outsourcing and vertical specialization. Second, we argue that Friedman pays...

In our paper, we modify the concept of the middle-income trap (MIT) against the background of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the (future) challenges of automation (creating the concept of the “MIT 2.0”). In particular, we analyze the impacts of automation, artificial intelligence, and...