This paper reviews the recent literature on the developmental effects of resource abundance, assessing likely effects and channels with respect to income inequality, poverty, education, and health. To date, this area has received less analysis although it is relevant to the Sustainable...

States' fiscal capacity plays a pivotal role in developing economies, but it is less clear what its determinants are or what explains cross-country differences. We focus on the impact of natural resources. Standard arguments suggest that natural resources rents may reduce incentives to invest in...

This paper explores the constitutional political economy and history of economic liberalization in China, with the aim of understanding how and why the policies that produced that growth came to be adopted. The paper argues that constitutional reforms played important roles in China's economic...

In the essay, we show how the preference of political elites for special status and power translates to an institutional structure that not only maximizes their relative share of social wealth through predation but ensure they keep as wide as possible the gap between actual development and...

Catastrophes in Sudan are of many dimensions. Food security is a chronic and intrinsic problem in Sub Saharan Africa which is a fact recognized by the international society. Political instability, civil wars and finally recent secession of its Southern part is another fact which may be taken as...

This essay reviews the historical and ongoing role played by trade in sustained high growth and human development progress, and makes the case that the post-2015 development agenda should include considerations related to trade rules and supply-side capacity. Given the strong links between...

Does fractionalization change over time? If so, are there any substantial implications foreconomic performance? To answer such questions, we construct a new panel data set withfractionalization measures for 26 former communist countries covering the period from 1989to 2002...

I argue that the economic success of Botswana can be explained by the historical development of its institutions which is related to the trajectory of the Tswana states over the past 200 years. These institutions created a much more stable and accountable government than elsewhere in Africa...

In relation to the concept of governance as defined by the World Bank, this article reviews the mistakes and lessons learned from Nigeria's attempt at economic development over the final three or four decades of the 20th century. Special attention is given to the adverse impact of the several...