| 1. |
- Ahlerup, Pelle, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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Social Capital vs Institutions in the Growth Process
- 2007
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Is social capital always important for economic growth? A number of recent micro studies suggest that interpersonal trust and social capital will have its greatest impact on economic performance when court institutions are relatively weak. The conventional wisdom from macro studies, however, is that social capital is unconditionally good for growth. On the basis of the micro evidence, we outline an investment game between a producer and a lender in an incomplete-contracts setting. A key insight is that social capital will have the greatest e¤ect on the total surplus from the game at lower levels of institutional strength and that the effect of social capital vanishes when institutions are very strong. When we bring this prediction to an empirical cross-country growth regression, it is shown that the marginal e¤ect of social capital (in the form of inter- personal trust) decreases with institutional strength. Our results imply that a one standard deviation rise in social capital in weakly institutionalized Nigeria should increase economic growth by 1.8 percentage points, whereas the same increase in social capital only increases growth by 0.3 percentage points in strongly institutionalized Canada.
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| 2. |
- Ahlerup, Pelle, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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The Roots of Ethnic Diversity
- 2007
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The level of ethnic diversity is believed to have significant consequences for economic and political development within countries. In this article, we provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the determinants of ethnic diversity in the world. We introduce a model of cultural and genetic drift where new ethnic groups endogenously emerge among peripheral populations as a response to an insufficient supply of public goods. In line with our model, we find that the duration of human settlements has a strong positive association with ethnic diversity. Ethnic diversity decreases with the length of modern state experience and with distance from the equator. Both "primordial" and "constructivist" hypotheses of ethnic fractionalization thus receive some support by our analysis.
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| 3. |
- Congdon Fors, Heather, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Endogenous Institutional Change After Independence
- 2005
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A key event in economic history was the independence of nearly ninety former colonies after World War II. On the basis of qualitative and quantitative evidence, we argue that independence often constituted an institutional disequilibrium that the new regimes reacted to in very different ways. We present a model of endogenous changes in property rights institutions where an autocratic post colonial ruler faces a basic trade-off between stronger property rights, which increases his dividends from the modern sector, and weaker property rights that increases his ability to appropriate resource rents. The model predicts that revenuemaximizing regimes in control of an abundance of resource rents and with insignificant interests in the modern sector will rationally install weak institutions of private property, a prediction which we argue is well in line with actual developments in for instance DR Congo, Ghana, and Zambia.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Dalgaard, Carl-Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Why Are Market Economies Politically Stable? A Theory of Capitalist Cohesion
- 2007
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present paper documents that political stability is positively associated with the extent of domestic trade. In explaining this reg- ularity, we provide a model where political cohesion is linked to the emergence of a fully functioning market economy. Without market ex- change, the welfare of inherently selfish individuals will be mutually independent. As a result, political negotiations, echoing the prefer- ences of the citizens of society, will be dog-eat-dog in nature. Whoever has greater bargaining power will be willing to make decisions that en- hance the productivity of his supporters at the expense of other groups in society. If the gains from specialization become su¢ ciently large, however, a market economy will emerge. From being essentially non- cooperative under self-sufficiency, the political decision making process becomes cooperative in the market economy, as the welfare of individ- uals will be mutually interdependent due to the exchange of goods.
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| 6. |
- Dalgaard, Carl-Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Windfall Gains, Political Economy, and Economic Development
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Natural resource rents and foreign aid have the character of windfall gains that affect economic outcomes both directly and indirectly. Several studies have shown that the indirect effect typically works via institutions like corruption. In this article, we offer a theoretical framework for a joint analysis of how natural resources and aid potentially affect total output in society through rent seeking activities. We survey the existing evidence on both direct and indirect effects of windfalls and provide some new empirical evidence of the association between aid/natural resources and institutions in a large cross-section of countries. Our results suggest that whereas more aid means less corruption, natural resource rents is positively correlated with corruption, although both relationships are nonlinear.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Hansson, Gustav, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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Country Size and the Rule of Law: Resuscitating Montesquieu
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The political and economic impact of country size has been a frequently discussed issue in social science. In accordance with the general hypothesis of Montesquieu, this paper demonstrates that there is a robust negative relationship between the size of country territory and a measure of the rule of law for a large cross-section of countries. We propose that there are two main reasons for this regularity; firstly that institutional quality often has the character of a local public good that is imperfectly spread across space from the capital to the hinterland, and secondly that a large territory usually is accompanied by valuable rents that tend to distort property rights institutions. Our empirical analysis further shows that whether the capital is centrally or peripherally located within the country matters for the average level of rule of law.
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| 9. |
- Olsson, Karin H., 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Relative costs of courtship behaviours in nest-building sand gobies
- 2009
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Ingår i: Animal Behaviour. - : Elsevier BV. - 0003-3472 .- 1095-8282. ; 77, s. 541-546
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Courting males often use multiple signals to advertise their quality to females. Assuming that courtship traits are energetically costly, one would expect a limit to the overall courtship effort of an individual and that a high courtship effort takes its toll on individual condition. We tested this experimentally using a small marine fish, the sand goby, Pomatoschistus minutus, whose males attract females through courtship displays and well-built nests (mussel shells covered with sand). At the end of a 5-day period of supplemental food, or repeatedly induced courtship or construction of nests (or none of these, as a control), we tested whether male display intensity, nest quality (nest cover and nest opening size) and body condition were affected. Males provided with food in excess were in significantly better condition and had significantly higher nest quality than control males. Display rate, however, was not significantly affected by feeding regime. Fish that had been manipulated to perform increased courtship or nest building did not suffer in terms of reduced condition, display rate or nest quality. However, individual fish that displayed intensely after treatment also built better-covered nests. Both of these traits are important in female choice. Moreover, fish that displayed intensely before the treatment continued to do so after treatment, a result that is compatible with signalling of genetic or phenotypic quality. Our results suggest that (1) nest cover is an honest signal of male condition, although we found no cost of nest building per se and (2) courtship display does not signal male condition.
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| 10. |
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