Economists generally assume the existence of sufficient institutions to sustain a market economy and tax the citizens … "economic institutions", which in turn reflect past investments in legal and fiscal state capacity. We study the economic and … wars, as well as political stability and inclusive political institutions, are conducive to building state capacity …

geography and these institutions, we posit, is via the effect of transparency on the state's extractive capacity. We apply our … the relevance of our theory to analyses of the deep rooted factors affecting economic development and the growth of …

, where due to population mixing and the salience of national institutions ethnic traits play a lesser role. Overall, our …

Institutions that serve the interests of an elite are often cited as an important reason for poor economic performance …. This paper builds a model of institutions that allocate resources and power to maximize the payoff of an elite, but where … any group that exerts sufficient fighting effort can launch a rebellion that destroys the existing institutions. The …

distribution and growth, as well as the relevant empirical evidence. The first model integrates the political-economy and imperfect … capital markets theories. It allows for departures from perfect democracy and embodies the trade-off between the growth costs … savings incentives and ameliorate the wealth constraints that impede investment by the poor. The second model is a growth …

The goal of this paper is to propose a simple paradigm for understanding rent seeking and corruption in the growth … context. We develop an endogenous growth model where entrepreneurs, as intermediate-good producers, may engage in rent … economy is shown to fall into a trap of high rent seeking/corruption and low growth. Agents' perceptions about the external …

institution building, we also show the importance of institutions in explaining the variation in economic development and growth …Drawing on the recent literature on economic institutions and the origins of economic development, we offer a political …

privatization, but most respondents prefer to leave firms in private hands. We examine who wants to revise privatization and why …. Respondents with poor human capital and few assets support revising privatization due to a preference for state over private … property. Economic hardships during transition increase support for revising privatization due to the perceived unfairness of …