I trace the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on the evolution of political authority in West Africa. I present econometric evidence showing that the trans-Atlantic slave trade increased absolutism in pre-colonial West Africa by approximately 17% to 35%, while reducing democracy and...

Many papers have found mixed results in studying the relationship between institutional quality and some of its determinants, namely openness to trade, GDP per capita and economic globalization. This paper reexamines the relationship between government institutions and these factors. The main...

In this paper, we utilize stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the impact of the regulations and institutions on bank efficiency through analyzing 389 savings and commercial banks in 11 Asian countries during the period 2000-2012. We find that activity restriction, capital requirement,...

Cet article propose d’actualiser la synthèse de la littérature empirique sur la corruption. En effet, la littérature sur l’économie de la corruption s’est fortement développée ces dernières années tant du point de vue théorique qu’empirique. Dans cet article, nous nous...

A well-established result in the theoretical literature on labour market flexibility is that the employment should be more volatile in "flexible" labour markets. Over the last 35 years, Italy gives a good example of a transition from an over-regulated labour market into a quite more flexible...

Modern economies are increasingly based on knowledge and, more generally, on the intangible assets that favour the economic development. Knowledge-based economies are founded on increasing specialization, research, innovation and learning. The change towards a knowledge-based economy is...

Many empirical studies have been done to investigate whethere growth is influenced by international trade. But despite the great effort that has been devoted to studying the issue, there is little persuasive evidence concerning the effect of trade on growth. The main subject of our paper is to...

We try to introduce in this paper an outline of explanation of the under development sources in the Arab world, by adopting the new definition of the social capital and institutional efficiency. It will be summarized around the intuition of spontaneous institution. It signifies the respect of...

This dissertation examines Brazilian industrial policies during the administrations of President Lula (2003-2010) and questions if innovation has truly been the main driver of those instruments. It provides a brief overview on the intersections of politics, economics, innovation and institutions...

Human actions, interactions and decisions should have a certain degree of predictability that can be obtained by establishing rules. Institutions, in general, are defined by sets of rules known by the public and applicable for the community. Their existence is essential for the economic...