We analyse convergence of per capita income across the US states for the period 1929--2011. We find that absolute convergence was in evidence early, but it broke down around 1978. It appears to have returned in 1990, although more weakly than before. We use two standard metrics to evaluate...

Trust is an important determinant of economic development. Understanding its origins is therefore critical. We develop a principal-agent model with heterogeneous players to determine the aggregate amount of trustworthiness and trust in a society. People are distributed according to their...

The paper studies endogenous world balanced growth equilibria in which national learning productivity differentials govern relative per capita products. Learning productivities depend on the national share of world specialized-goods production, national and world scale, and familiarity with the...

Long-term economic development involves four fundamental processes: the exploitation of increasing returns to specialization, the transition from household to market production, knowledge and human capital accumulation, and industrialization. In this paper, we integrate these processes into a...

In many African countries, governments are re-thinking the role of the state in centrally providing certain goods and services. The rights and responsibilities for providing various public goods are being decentralized to lower levels of government administration, and/or being devolved directly...

Many industries have been hit hard by the recent recession, but none more so than the retail sector. As retailers have struggled, however, a few major chains have found ways to increase both earnings and sales. Companies such as Staples, Bed Bath & Beyond and Office Depot have consistently...

I develop a model of exploitation--coercive wealth transfer--and growth based on social importance. Exploitation reduces growth since the return to capital falls with exploitation costs. Initial relative wealth across groups--the measure of social importance--determines which group is the...