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作者:Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck; Jensen, Peter Sandholt; Skovsgaard, Christian Volmar
作者单位:University of Southern Denmark
摘要:This research sheds new light on the much-debated link between agricultural productivity and development. We do so by estimating the causal impact of a large shock to agricultural productivity the introduction of the heavy plow in the Middle Ages-on long run development. We build on the work of Lynn White, Jr. (1962), who argued that it was impossible to take proper advantage of the fertile clay soils of Northern Europe prior to the invention and widespread adoption of the heavy plow. We imple...
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作者:Bhattacharya, Sukanta; Saha, Sarani; Banerjee, Sarmila
作者单位:University of Calcutta; Indian Institute of Technology System (IIT System); Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Kanpur
摘要:That the high growth-rising inequality phenomenon - experienced by many high growth developing economies in the recent past - may lead to discontent among the poor is a well-discussed issue. This paper argues that as the demand for higher quality of the public services rises with income, the rising income in the hands of the rich leads to their dissatisfaction about the quality of available public services, thereby inducing them to form their own club for self-provision of the public services ...
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作者:Sukhtankar, Sandip
作者单位:Dartmouth College; Dartmouth College
摘要:This paper examines the effect of firm ownership structure on firm behavior and the economic outcomes of upstream suppliers by comparing privately owned sugar mills to cooperatives and public mills in India. In this setting, government support for cooperative and public mills allows meaningful variation in ownership structure to be observed, while the command area zoning system - whereby mills are given monopsony power to operate within an assigned area - helps tackle the identification challe...
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作者:Burlando, Alfredo; Motta, Alberto
作者单位:University of Oregon; University of New South Wales Sydney
摘要:There is a heated debate on the merits of legalizing certain illegal, harmful and corrupting activities (such as trade in illicit drugs), but little theoretical insights on the consequences for optimal enforcement policies and corruption. We propose a model where the government hires law enforcers to report those who engage in a harmful activity. Offenders are allowed to respond by offering bribes to the law enforcers in exchange for their silence. When standard anti-corruption policies are co...
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作者:Perez-Sebastian, Fidel; Raveh, Ohad
作者单位:Universitat d'Alacant; University of Hull; Hebrew University of Jerusalem
摘要:Previous studies imply that a positive regional fiscal shock, such as a resource boom, strengthens the desire for separation. In this paper we present a new and opposite perspective. We construct a model of endogenous fiscal decentralization that builds on two key notions: a trade-off between risk sharing and heterogeneity, and a positive association between resource booms and risk. The model shows that a resource windfall causes the nation to centralize as a mechanism to either share risk and...
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作者:Fernandes, Ana M.; Freund, Caroline; Pierola, Martha Denisse
作者单位:The World Bank; Peterson Institute for International Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
摘要:We present new data on the micro-structure of the export sector for 45 countries and study how exporter behavior varies with country size and stage of development. Larger countries and more developed countries have more exporters, larger exporters, and a greater share of exports controlled by the top 5%. The extensive margin (more firms) plays a greater role than the intensive margin (average size) in supporting exports of larger countries. In contrast, the intensive margin is relatively more ...
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作者:Koppensteiner, Martin Foureaux; Manacorda, Marco
作者单位:University of Leicester; University of London; Queen Mary University London; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; IZA Institute Labor Economics
摘要:This paper uses microdata from Brazilian vital statistics on births and deaths between 2000 and 2010 to estimate the impact of in-utero exposure to local violence - measured by homicide rates - on birth outcomes. The estimates show that exposure to violence during the first trimester of pregnancy leads to a small but precisely estimated increase in the risk of low birthweight and prematurity. Effects are found both in small municipalities, where homicides are rare, and in large municipalities,...
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作者:Mercier, Marion
作者单位:Universite Catholique Louvain
摘要:This paper describes the relationship between political leaders' migration experience and the evolution of democracy during their leadership. We build up an original database on the personal background of 932 politicians who were at the head of the executive power in a developing country over the 1960-2004 period. These data reveal the existence of a positive correlation between the fact that leaders studied abroad and the change in the score of democracy in their country during their tenure, ...
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作者:Baksi, Soham; Bose, Pinaki
作者单位:University of Winnipeg; University of Manitoba
摘要:The paper models a vertically related formal and informal sector, and endogenizes the size and regulatory compliance status of the informal sector. When the formal sector can circumvent costly regulations by outsourcing polluting intermediate goods from the informal sector, stricter regulations increase (when the composition effect of regulation dominates its scale effect) or decrease total pollution, and may even have a non-monotonic impact. We identify conditions under which a partially comp...
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作者:Docquier, Frederic; Lodigiani, Elisabetta; Rapoport, Hillel; Schiff, Maurice
作者单位:Universite Catholique Louvain; Universite Catholique Louvain; Universita Ca Foscari Venezia; Paris School of Economics; heSam Universite; Universite Pantheon-Sorbonne; Bar Ilan University; IZA Institute Labor Economics
摘要:International migration is an important determinant of institutions, not considered so far in the development literature. Using cross-sectional and panel estimation for a large sample of developing countries, we find that openness to emigration has a positive effect on home-country institutional development (as measured by standard democracy indices). The results are robust to a wide range of specifications and identification methods. Remarkably, the cross-sectional estimates are fully in line...