Institutions and Economic Performance explores the question of why income per capita varies so greatly across countries. Even taking into account disparities in resources, including physical and human capital, large economic discrepancies remain across countries. Why are some societies but not others able to encourage investments in places, people, and productivity? The answer, the book argues, lies to a large extent in institutional differences across societies. Such institutions are wide-ranging and include formal constitutional arrangements, the role of economic and political elites, informal institutions that promote investment and knowledge transfer, and others. Two core themes run through the contributors’ essays. First, what constraints do institutions place on the power of the executive to prevent it from extorting the investments and effort of other people and institutions? Second, when are productive institutions self-enforcing? Institutions and Economic Performance is unique in its melding of economics, political science, history, and sociology to address its central question.
Author(s): Helpman, Elhanan
Edition: 1st
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 619
City: Cambridge, Massachussets
Preface...vii Introduction...1 Part I. History 1. The Impact of Administrative Power on Political and Economic Developments: Toward a Political Economy of Implementation (Avner Greif)...17 2. The Institutional Origins of the Industrial Revolution (Joel Mokyr)...64 3. Institutions and the Resource Curse in Early Modern Spain (Mauricio Drelichman and Hans-]oachim Voth)...120 4. Slavery, Inequality, and Economic Development in the Americas: An Examination of the Engerman-Sokoloff Hypothesis (Nathan Nunn)...148 5. Economic and Political Inequality in Development:The Case of Cundinamarca, Colombia (Daron Acemoglu, Maria Angelica Bautista, Pablo Querubin,and ]ames A. Robinson)...181 Part II. Theory 6. The Constitutional Choice of Bicameralism (Abhinay Muthoo and Kenneth A. Shepsle)...249 7. Economic Development, Insurgency> and Civil War (]ames D. Fearon)...292 8. Party Discipline and Pork-Barrel Politics (Gene M. Grossman and Elhanan Helpman)...329 9. Policy Persistence in Multiparty Parliamentary Democracies (Daniel Diermeier and Pollan Forzg)...361 Part III. Contemporary Evidence 10. Formalizing Informal Institutions: Theory and Evidence from a Kenyan Slum (Siwan Anderson and Patrick Francois)...409 11. Making Autocracy Work (Timothy Besley and Masayuki Kudamatsu)...452 12. Democracy, Technology, and Growth (Philippe Aghion, Alberto Alesina, and Francesco Trebbi)...511 13. The Growth Effect of Democracy: Is It Heterogenous and How Can It Be Estimated? (Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini)...544 List of Contributors...587 Author Index...589 Subject Index...597
