Many theoretical models show that redistribution causes low growth or capital outflows even though empirically redistribution and growth are often found to be positively associated across countries. This paper argues that tax competition and the danger of capital outflows leads optimizing...

This paper questions the three standard propositions used by politico-economic models of growth and distribution according to which (1) rising inequality induces more government redistribution; (2) more government redistribution is financed by higher distortionary taxation; and (3) higher...

We estimate the effect of political regime transitions on growth with semi-parametric methods, combining difference in differences with matching, that have not been used in macroeconomic settings. Our semi-parametric estimates suggest that previous parametric estimates may have seriously...

This paper examines to what extent gender gaps in education, health, employment, productive assets and inputs can affect pro poor growth (in the sense of increasing monetary incomes of the poor). After discussing serious methodological problems with examining gender issues in the context of an...

Germany remains Europe's largest and most diversified source of new technology, but still lags in the fastest growing areas of today's high technology. After World War II, West-German technology policy sought to rebuild the institutions which had supported Germany's leadership in the high-tech...

I reconsider the primacy of institutions over geography as an explanatory factor of cross-country differences in economic performance, which has recently been postulated by Acemoglu et al. (2001) and others. My estimates show that the reported missing direct performance effects of a measure of...

This paper addresses the poor economic performance of Eastern Europe in the 1990s and the future development potential of the region in the light of the theories of economic growth and human capital and their empirical tests. It concludes that Eastern Europe is likely to have fallen into a...

The two-sector specific factor model is typically used in the theory of international trade where it helps to clarify the principle of comparative advantage. Instead, we use this model as explicit theoretical framework to explain major trends of long-run economic development. Combined with...

In this paper education simultaneously affects growth and income inequality. More education does not necessarily decrease inequality when the latter is assessed by the Lorenz dominance criterion. Increases in education first increase and then decrease growth as well as income inequality, when...

In dieser Arbeit wird ein Überblick über einige Kernaussagen der ''Neuen Wachstumstheorie'' über den Zusammenhang von Wissen und wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung gegeben. Ausgehend von der ''neoklassischen'' Wachstumstheorie wird die Bedeutung von Wissen in Prototypen endogenen Wachstums der...